Notes On The Parables of Our Lord (Richard Cheneyix Trench, 1867)

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NOTES
ON
d'?U
THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD

BY
RICHARD CHENEYIX TRENCH, M.

Vicar of itchen stoke, hants
;
A.,
professor of divinity, king's college,,
london
and examinin(j chaplain to the lord bishop of oxford.
FIRST AMERICAN,
FROM THE THIRD ENGLISH
EDITION.
b.
NEW-YORK APPLETON & COMPANY,

PHILADELPHIA:
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BROADWAY!
GEO.
S.
APPLETON,
M
148
CHESNUT-ST,
DCCC XLVn.
ADVEMSEMENT
OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.
That a work has reached a third edition in England, although one evidence of its merit, may not always be a safe Or satisfactory reason for But in regard to the volume herewith its republication in this country.
sent Ibrth, the subject of which
ability with
it treats is of such general interest, and the has been prepared is so marked, and has been so universally acknowledged, that the publishers cannot hesitate to believe they are doing good service to the cause of sound theological learning in making it accessible to a large class of American readers, who in all probability would not otherwise be able to possess it.
which
it
The
by age
parable, whilst
to the mind, is at the
it is amongst the earliest modes of conveying truth same time the most effective. Never losing its vigor
or repetition,
it
convinces sooner than logical argument, and strikes
Ihe imagination more readily than a living example.*

teaching, and that he
From
the fact that
the parables of our Lord form a very considerable portion of his recorded
was accustomed by them
to enforce the highest
moral
precepts, to illustrate important points of doctrine,
and
to give prophetical
it is
intimation of future events relating to himself and his mission,

sential to the Christian teacher,
obvious
it is
that a competent knowledge of this portion of the Gospels, while

is
es-
of the greatest value to every
member of
the Church.
perusal.
like
And amply will

the
little
these sacred fictions repay the most constant

is the word of they are the delight of riper
Attractive in the highest degree, even to childhood, while as yet
Samuel
hearer " does not know the Lord, nor

iii.
the Lord yet revealed to him," (1 Sam.
7,)
manhood, and never

principles to ponder,
fail to offer to
the attentive reader, beauties to admire,

to allure.
and examples
Thus do they
illustrate the
* Haec autem docendi ratio, quae facit ad illustrationem anliquis seculis
plurimum
At-
adhibebatur.
Ut Hieroglyphica Uteris,
ita
Parabolae argumentis erant antiquiores.

;
que hodie etiam et semper, eximius est et fuit Parabolarum vigor cum nee argumenta tam perspicua nee vera exempla tam apta, esse posslQt.-^BACONi de Augmentis Scientiarum,
lib. 2.
cap. 13.
ADVERTISEMENT OP THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.
wisdom and benevolence of that Heavenly Teacher "who spake as never

spake," and exhibit a skill in the statement of" moral principles to which no merely human intellect was ever equal, and a power and beauty of illustration which no poet or orator ever approached. In the present work the parables of our Lord are collected together, compared, and explained; and by a judicious use of learning, and a fertile and happy employment of illustrative comment, they are rendered eminently profitable " for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness." " As a mere delight to the understanding," says Dr. Arnold, " I know of none greater than thus bringing together the different and scattered jewels of God's word, and arranging them in one perfect group. For whatever is the pleasure of contemplating wisdom absolutely inexhaustible, employed on no abstract matter of science, but on our very own nature, opening the secrets of our hearts, and disclosing the whole plan of our course in life of the highest wisdom clothed in a garb of most surpassing beauty such is the pleasure to the mere understanding of searching into the words of Christy and blending them into the image of his perfect will respecting us." If the understanding can be thus delighted and improved, can it fail but that at the same time the heart will be made better ? Mr.
; ;
man
Trench, while informing the understanding, has never neglected the opportunity to excite the affections, to regulate them, and lead them to seek
Holy Spirit which can alone purify them and them for the service of God. These " scattered jewels of God's word," of which Dr. Arnold speaks, he has brought together, and fixed them in a what silver, or gold setting, not worthy indeed of their richness and lustre even, of human workmanship could possess such value? but the framework is yet skilfully constructed, and is wrought by a devout as well as a learned and earnest mind, and will hold its pearls of wisdom so that we may have the opportunity of gazing upon them in their concentrated form with delight and profit. Under these convictions of the importance of the subject and the successful manner \i\ which it has been treated by Mr. Trench, this volume is now commended to the notice of American readers by the Publishers.
the blessed influences of that
fit
New-York^ June
IStft,
1847.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
CHAP,
I.
PAGE.
On
the Definition of the Parable
II.
On
On
On
Teaching by Parables
the Interpretation of Parables
....
.
16
III.
30
43
IV.
other Parables besides those in the Scriptures
PARABLES.
8
XXII. The Lost Sheep
CONTENTS.
XXIII. The Lost Piece of Money
XXIV. The
Prodigal Son
XXV. The
XXVII.
Unjust Steward
XXVI. The Rich Man and Lazarus

Unprofitable Servants
....... ..... ...... ...... .....

.....
'.
288 298
303
331
352 376
XXVIII. The Unjust Judge
382
392
400
XXIX. The
Pharisee and the Publican
XXX. The Pounds
INTRODUCTOM EEMARKS.
CHAPTER
I.
ON THE DEFINITION OF THE PARABLE.

Those
appear
writers
to
who have had occasion

it
to
define a parable * do not
have found
an easy task
its
to
give such a satisfying definition
as should omit
none of
distinguishing marks, and yet at the
same time
Rather
,
include nothing that was superfluous and merely accidental.
than attempt
to
add another
will seek to note briefly
many definitions already given f I what seems to me to diflference it from the fable,
to the
it
the allegory,
and such other forms of composition as most closely border

from those forms of
upon
it.
In the process of thus distinguishing

it
composition, with which
is
most nearly
allied,
and therefore most

to put forth
HapaPoXi], from napa.SdWeiv, projicere, objicere,

;
i.
e. tI rivi,
one thing
before or beside another
and
it is
assumed, when TrapafioMis used
for parable,
though
not necessarily included in the word, that the purpose for which they are set side by
side
is
that they
is
may
be compared one with the other.
That
this
is
not necessarily
itself
included
proved not only from the derivation, but from the fact that the word
irapiPoXos, Tapo,<?oXa)f, parabolanus, are
and the whole family of cognate words, as

in altogether a diiferent sense, yet one
tion o^
used
growing out of
it
the
same
root, in
which
the no-
putting forth
is
is
retained, but
is
no longer
for the
purpose of comparison,
irapiffoXos, qui ohjicit
which
only the accident, not of the essence of the word.
Thus
se praesentissimo vitae periculo, one
who
exposes his
life,
as those called parabolani, he-
cause they buried infected corpses at Alexandria.

t
Many
from the Greek Fathers are
to
be found in Suicer's Thes.,
s.
v.
Kapa0o\n-
Jerome, on
Mark
iv.,
defines
it
thus
Sermonem
umbra
:
utilem, sub idonea figura expressum,

;
et in recessu,
continentem spiritualem aliquam admonitionem
and he
calls
it
finely in
another place
(Ad
Algas.), Quasi
p.
praevia veritatis.
Among
Teelman
:
the
modems,
Unger (De Parah. Jesu Naturd,

similitudo a rebus
et caeleste.
a.
30)
Parabola Jesu est collatio per narratiunculam
fictam, sed verisimilem, serio illustrans
rem sublimiorem.
Parabola est
spirituale
communibus
:
et obviis
desumta ad significandum quicquam
Bengel
Parabola
est oratio, quae
pernarrationem fictam sed verjE similem,
rebus ad vitae
communis usum
pertinentibus
desumtam,
veritates
minus notas aut
morales repraesentat.
10
likely to be confounded,
perties will
ON THE DEFINITION
and justifying the
distinction, its essential pro-
come before us much more clearly than I could hope to bring them in any other way. 1. There are some .who have confounded the parable with the ^sopic fable, or drawn only a slight and hardly perceptible line of distinction
between them, 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

fail to
it
as possible.
But not
this.
to
say
dif-
that examples altogether
bear them out in this assertion, the

far
ference
is
is
much more
all
its
real,
and
more deeply seated than

it
The
:
parable
constructed to set forth a truth spiritual and heavenly

value,
is
this
the fable, with
not
is
essentially of the earth,
and and
never
lifts itself
above the earth.
It
never has a higher aim than
to in;
culcate
these
it
maxims
will
of prudential morality, industry, caution, foresight

at the
sometimes recommend even

virtues.
expense of the higher
self- forgetting
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 pur-
pose 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 sharpfable,
eninor of the understanding.
For the purposes of the

is
which are
the j-ecommendation and enforcement of the prudential virtues, the regulation of that in
man which
instinct in beasts, hi itself a laudable dis-
cipline, but by itself leaving
him only a
That world
subtler beast of the field,
for
these purposes, examples and illustrations taken from the world beneath
him are admirably main
suited .f
is
therefore the haunt and the

fable
:
region, though
by no means the exclusive one, of the
even
* The two fables that are found in the Old Testament, that of the trees which would choose a king, (Judg. ix. 8-15), and the brief one of the thistle and cedar, (2 Kin. xiv. 9), may seem to impeach the universality of this rule, but do not so in fact.
For
only
in neither case
is it
God
of
that
is
speaking, nor yet messengers of
his, delivering his
counsel: but men, and from an earthly standing point, not a divine.
to
teach the
:
men
Shechem
their folly, not their sin, in
Jotham seeks making Abimelech

it is
king over them
the fable never lifting itself to the rebuke of sin, as

;
sin
this is
beyond
its
region
but only in so far as
it
is
also folly.
And
Jehoash, in the same

to the
conflict, not thereby teaching
way, would make Amaziah see his presumption and pride, in challenging him him any moral lesson, but only giving evidence
which he uttered, that
his
in the
fable
own
pride
was offended by
the challenge
of the
Jewish king.
t
this
;
The
it
greatest of
all
fables, the
Reineke Fuchs,
affords
ample
life
illustration of all
is
throughout a glorifying of cunning as the guide of
and
the deliverer
from
all ev^l.
OF THE PARABLE.
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
also.
are spiritual,
many
of his relations
to the
world beneath him are so

rests
His lordship over the animals,

dominion given
for instance,
on his higher
therefore, as in
it
spiritual nature, is a
to
him from above;
the instance of the shepherd and sheep (John x.) and elsewhere,
will
serve to image forth deeper truths of the relation of

It
God
to
man.
it
belongs
to this,
the loftier standing point of the parable, that

itself therefore in
should be deeply earnest, allowing

lery at the weaknesses, the
follies,
no jesting nor
rail-
or the crimes of
at the
men,*
while
Severe and
indignant
it
may
be, but
its
it
never jests
is
calamities of men, however

:
well deserved, and

lery,
indignation
that of holy love
in this rail-
and
;-\
in
these bitter mockings, the fabulist not unfrequently inbiting salt into the
is,
dulges
he rubs
it
wounds of men's
souls
it
may
in
be, perhaps
generally
with a desire to heal those hurts, yet
still
a very different spirit from that in which the affectionate Saviour of
men poured
oil
and wine
into the bleeding
wounds of humanity.
* Phaedrus' definition of the fable squares with that here given
Duplex
hbelli dos est, ut
risum moveat,
consilio
Et quod prudenti vitam

t
monet.
As
finds place, for instance, in

I'ete,
La
it
Fontaine's celebrated fable,
La Cigale ayant
is
it
chante tout
in which the ant,

it
in reply to the petition
of the grasshopper, which

bids
to
starving in the winter, reminds
how
sung
all
the
summer, and
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. 1,
list
Luke
xvi. 1
but with this mighty difference, that the fabu-
has only wordly needs in his eye,

;
it is
only against these that he urges to lay up by
timely industry a sufficient store
while the Lord in his parables 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,
v.
to
prepare for ourselves a reception

fabulist uses
into everlasting habitations.
The image which
the
French
was very
well
capable of such higher application, had he been conscious of any such needs, (see Prov.
vi. 8,
and on that verse, Coteler, Patt. Apos.,

Ixvi. 2.)
is
i.
p.
104, note 13, and Augustine,

the Nightingale, from
is
Enarr. in Ps.
In Saadi's far nobler fable.
The Ant and
whence La Fontaine's
undoubtedly borrowed, such application
distinctly intimated.
Von Hammer has

Persian fable.
dotus,
offered
(i.
in this
view an interesting comparison between the French and the

p.
(Gesch. d. schOn. Redek. Pers.,
207.)
The
fable with
which Plero-
141,) relates
Cyrus
to
have answered the Ionian ambassadors, when lh?y
him a
late submission, is another

is
specimen of the
bitter irony, of
which
this class
of composition
often the vehicle.
12
ON THE DEFINITION
And
yet again, there
ftible.
is
another point of difference between the parait
ble and the
While
can never be said that the fabulist

neither his intention to deceive,
to
is
re-
gardless of truth, since

attributes
beasts, nor
truth,
it is
when he
and
language and discourse of reason

is
trees,
and
birds,
any one deceived by him

is
yet the severer reverence for
which
habitual to the higher moral teacher, will not allow

in this sporting
him
to indulge
even
with the truth, this temporary suspension
of
its
laws, though upon agreement, or, at least, with tacit understand-
ing.
In his mind, the creation of God, as

is
it
came from
the Creator's
to
hands,
too perfect, has too

it
much
really
of reverence owing to
is.
it,
be repre-
sented otherwise than as
The
great Teacher by parables,
therefore, allowed himself in no transgression of the established laws of
nature
in
nothing marvellous or anomalous
he presents to us no
speaking trees or reasoning beasts,* and

of an unfitness in his so doing.
2.
we
should be at once conscious
The
parable
is
different
from the mythus, inasmuch as in the

is
mythus, the truth and that which

wholly blended together
tinction
:
only the vehicle of the truth are

is
and the consciousness that there

it is
any
in
dis-
between them, that

had
possible to separate
the one from the
other, belongs only to a later
and more reflective age than that

in
which
the
mythus
itself
birth, or those
which
it
was
heartily believed.
The mythic
fect
narrative presents itself not merely as the vehicle of the

;
truth, but as itself being the truth
while in the parable, there
is
a per-
consciousness in
all
minds, of the distinctness between form and
essence, shell
and kernel, the precious vessel and yet more precious

contains.
wine which
artificial
it
There
is
also the
mythus of another
class, the
product of a later self-conscious age, of which
many
inimita-
ble specimens are to be found in Plato, devised
with distinct intention
of embodying some important spiritual truth, of giving an outward subsistence to an idea.
But
these, while they
have
many
points of resem-
blance with the parable, yet claim no credence for themselves either as
actual or possible, (in this differing from the parable,) but only for the
* Klinckhardt {De Horn. Dh-.
el.
Laz.,
p. 2):
Fabula aliquod
vita;
rumque, praeceptum simplici
et
nonnunquam
:
jocosa oratione illustrat per
communis moexemplum
exemCicero
plerumqne contra veram naturam fictum

res divinas pertinentem) simplici
parabola autem sententiam sublimiorem (ad

et seria oratione illustrat per
quidem sed gravi

natura
plum
iia
excogitatum ut
i.
cum rerum
"Ean
is
maxim6
convenire videatur.
And
(De Invent.,
19)
Fabula
est in quft
nee verae ncc verisimiles res continentur.

Atfyoj iig Trcpl
But
of the parable Origen says,
napaôMl,
13
yu'O/ifvor,
nil
yivoiih'OV fdv Kara
TO liriTovySwaiicvov Si ycvtaOai. finds with Grotius, though he
There
then
some reason
for the fault
which Calov
the
only too ready to find fault, for
commonly using
terms fabula and fahella in speaking of our Lord's parables, terms which certainly
have an unpleasant sound
in the ear.
OF THE PARABLE.
truth
13
is
which they embody and declare.

old legend or
The same
;
the case
when upon
some
perit
some
myth
it
that has long been current, there is thrust
spiritual significance, clearly
by an afterthought
live in the spirit
;
in
which case
ishes in the letter that

is
may
all
outward subsistence
it is
denied
to
it,
for the
sake of asserting the idea which
made
to con-
tain.
To such
a process, as is well
known, the
latter Platonists submit-
ted the old
mythology of Greece. For instance, Narcissus
falling in love
with his
bol of
ces,
own image in the water-brook, and pining there, was the symman casting himself forth into the world of shows and appearanto find the
and expecting
good that would answer to his nature there,
but indeed finding only disappointment and death.
hereby
rality
to vindicate that to
It was their meaning mythology from charges of absurdity or immoit,
put a moral
life into
whereby
it
should maintain
its
ground
against the
new
life
of Christianity, though indeed they were only thus

it
hastening the destruction of whatever lingering faith in

vived in the minds of men.
3.
there yet sur-
The
it is
parable
is
also
clearly distinguishable from the proverb,*
though
true that in a certain degree, the words are used interchange-
ably in the
New Testament, and as equivalent the one to the other.

iv.
Thus,
" Physician heal thyself" (Luke
23),
the
is
termed a parable, being
more
strictly a
proverb
so again,
when
probably already familiar

both shall
fall
to his hearers,!
Lord had used that proverb, " If the blind lead the blind,
is
in the ditch," Peter said, " Declai'e unto us this parable^'

;
(Matt. XV. 14, 15)
and again, Luke
v.
36
a proverb or proverbial
it
expression, rather than a parable,
which name
bears.
So,
upon the
other hand, those are called proverbs in St. John, which, if not strictly
parables, yet claim
much
closer ailinity to the

:
parable than
to the pro-
verb, being in fact allegories

to his people
thus Christ's setting forth of his relations

to his
under those of a shepherd
sheep,
is
termed a " pro-
verb," though our translators, holding fast to the sense rather than to (John x. 6, compare xvi. 25, the letter, have rendered it a " parable."
294)
^t is
not difficult to explain
how
this
interchange of the two words
should have
come
to pass.
Partly from the fact which has been noted

in the
by many, of there being but one word

able and proverb
;
Hebrew
to signify both parin-
which circumstance must have had considerable

TTiip'
*
rive
it
ITapoi/jia, that
is,
oljjiov,
trite,
wayside saying,
^ irapoSia
But some de-
from
o'iîn,
tale, or
poem.
Yet Passow's explanation

it
of the latter
s.
word shows
v. irapoifiia.
that at the root the
two derivations are the same.
See Suicer's Thes-,

in a collection of
t It
verbs, in
I
is
current at least
now
in the East, as I find
Turkish Pro-
Von Hammer's JMorgenl. Kleehlatt, p. 63. The word napa0o\fi never occurs in St. John, nor
napoijiia in the three first
Evan-
gelists.
14
ON THE DEFINITION
and
itself
fluence upon writers accustomed to think in that language,
arose from the parable and proverb being alike enigmatical and some-
meaning and leaving
what obscure forms of speech, "dark sayings," speaking a part of their the rest to be inferred.* This is evidently true of
the parable, and in fact not less so of the proverb.
For though such

plain
proverbs as have become the heritage of an entire people, and have obtained universal currency,
may
be, or rather
may have become,
enough, yet in themselves proverbs are most often enigmatical, claiming

a quickness in detecting latent
affinities,
and oftentimes a knowledge

for their right
which
shall enable to catch
more or
less
remote allusions,
comprehension. f
And
yet further to explain
how
the terms should be

is
often indifferently used,
the
proverb, though not necessarily,

is, it
yet
very commonly
verb
parabolical,:}: that
rests
upon some comparison either

ii.
expressed or implied, as for example, 2 Pet.

is
22.
Or
again, the pro-
often a concentrated parable, for instance that one above quoted,

fall into
;
" If the blind lead the blind, both shall
the ditch," might evident-
ly be extended with ease into a parable
and in like manner, not merely
many
known
4.
proverbs might thus be beaten out into fables, but they are not un-
frequenlly allusions to or
fable.
It
summings up
in a single phrase of
some well-
only remains
to
consider wherein the parable differs from the

:
allegory,
which
it
does in form rather than in essence
there being in
the allegory, an interpenetration of the thing signifying and the thing

signified, the qualities
last,
and properties of the
first
being attributed
to the
and the two thus blended together, instead of being kept quite and placed side by
we
find our
dis-
tinct
side, as is the
case in the parable.
||
Thus, John
* So
xvi. 25),
Saviour contrasts the speaking in proverbs and parables (John

TrapjJriaia
with the speaking plainly,
(rdf pniia), every word.
+ For instance, to take two

quire
common Greek
is
proverbs:
Xj3fi<ra ;âX/vti'Mi'
would
re-
some knowledge of
obscurity that
is in
the
Homeric
narrative, BoCj
yXwo-tnit,
of Attic monies.
The
proverbs,
sufficiently
all
shown by
the fact of such books as the
Adagia
of Erasmus, in which he brings
his learning to bear
on
their elucidation,
and yet leaves many of ihem without any

Parazmiographi Graci, (Oxf. 1836,)
t
satisfactory explanation.
And
see also the
p. xi.-.xvi.
Xo'yoj t(Txii'aTtiTiiivoi, for
It is
not necessarily, as
some have affirmed, a

wiiXr/iof,
instance
'Ex^pwi' aStopa Swpa, or Ts.vKVi dneipM
and innumerable others are expressed with-
out figure
but very
many
are also parabolical, and generally the best," and those
which
have become most truly popular.

Quintilian says, \lupotpia fabella brevior
.
Parabola longius res quas compaTnipa.tfoX^
rentur repetere solet.
On
the distinction between the
and
vapatpia, there are
some good remarks in Hash's Thes. Now Theol. P/iilolog., v. 2. p. 503. Thus LowTU (De Sac. Pues. Heb., Pral. 10) His denique subjicienda est quasi lex quaedam parabola;, niniirum ut per omnia sibi constet, neque arcessitis propria
:
II
admista habeat.
In quo
multum
diiTerta
prima
allcgorioE specie, qua; a simplici
meta-
OF THE PARABLE.
XV. 1-8, "I
15
am
the true vine, &c.,"
is
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 of the sheep,

So, " Behold the
to the
the second, as the good Shepherd.
Lamb
of God,"
is
an allegorical, "
cal expression.*
tion to be
He
to
is
brought as a lamb
slaughter," a paraboli-
The
it
allegory needs not, as the parable, an interpreta-
brought
from without, since
it
contains
its
interpretation
within
in
itself,
and, as the allegory proceeds,the interpretation proceeds hand

it,
hand with
or at least never falls far behind
it
;f
and thus the allegory
stands to the metaphor, as the

position
isolated
more elaborate and long drawn out comof the same kind, in the same relation that the parable does to the And as many proverbs are, as we have comparison or simile.
seen, concise parables, in like
manner many
is
it
also are brief allegories.
For instance the following, which

is
an Eastern proverb,
are dogs,"
a carcase, and they

it
who gather round
" This world does

in fact in-
terpret itself as
tation
goes along, and needs not therefore that an interpre-
be brought to it from without ; while it is otherwise with the proverb spoken by our Lord, " Wheresoever the carcase is there will
the eagles be gathered together,"

tation
this gives
no help
to its
own
interpre-
from within, and
is
a saying, of which the darkness and difficulty
have been abundantly witnessed by the many interpretations of it which

have been proposed.
To sum up
things natural,
all
then, the parable differs from the fable,
moving
as
it
does in a spiritual world, and never transgressing the actual
from
order of
the mythus, there being in the latter an uncon-
phor& paulalim procedens, non semper continue excludit proprium, a propriis in translata paulatim illapsa,
nee minus leniter ex translatis in propria per gradus quosdam se
recipiens.
* Thus,
ver. 7
;
Isai. v.
1-6
is
a parable, of which the explanation
is
separately given,
is
while on the other hand, Ps. Ixxx. 8-16, resting on the same image,
;
an
allegory
since, for instance, the casting out of the heathen, that the
is
vine might be
planted,
an intermingling of the thing signifying and that
signified,
wherein the
viii.
note that distinguishes the allegory from the parable consists, as Quintilian {[nst.
3, 77), observes; for
/ffoXp
having defined the allegory, he proceeds: In omni autem
n-apa-
aut praecedit similitudo, res sequitur, aut praecedit res, similitude sequitur: sed inest.
terim libera et separata
The
allegory then
is
iranslatio, the
parable co/latio.
Since writing the above
I find that
Bishop Lowth {De Sac. Foes. Heh., Pral. 10) has

to illustrate the distinction.
adduced these same examples from Isaiah and the Psalmist

t
Of
all
this
the Pilgrim's Progress affords
ample
illustration,
" Interpreter" ap-
pearing there as one of the persons of the allegory.

V. 4, p.
553) mentions this
Mr. Hallam (Liter, of Europe, as a certain drawback upon the book, that, " in his lan-
guage, Bunyan sometimes mingles the signification too
much with
:"
the fable
is
we might
be perplexed between the imaginary and the real Christian
but
not this of the
very nature of the allegorical fable
IQ
ON TEACHING BY PARABLES.
in the parable,
scious blending of the deeper meaning with the outward symbol, the
two remaining separate and separable
from
the proverb,
inasmuch
paring as
as
it
is
longer
carried
out,
and not merely accidentally
and occasionally, but necessarily

it
figurative,
from
the allegory, com-
does one thing with another, at the same time preserving
them apart
as an inner and an outer, not transferring, as does the alleto
gory, the properties and qualities and relations of one
the other.
CHAPTER
II,
However
this
our Lord may on one or more occasions have made use of manner of teaching by parables, with the intention of withdrawing
tlie
from certain of his hearers
knowledge of
truths,
which they were
unworthy or
unfit to receive ;* yet
we may assume
as certain that his
* Macrobius (Somn. Scip.,
1.
i.
c.
2)
Figuris defendentibus a vilitate secretum,.

the Lord's purpose,
first
No
one can deny that

to his
this
was sometimes
who
is
not prepared to (Matt.

xiii.
do great violence
words, as recorded by the three

;
Evangelists.
10-15
Mark
them
iv. 11,
we
St.
find
in St.
Luke viii. 9, 10.) When we examine the words themselves, Mark to wear their strongest and severest aspect. There and in
12
in parables is said to be that (Jva,
;
Luke, the purpose of speaking
which can be noin
thing else than tcXikw) seeing they might not see

parables, because (on) they seeing see not.
while in St.
Matthew he speaks
it is
In
Matthew and Mark

their eyes
;
said to be so
done,
lest (unTtore) at
any time they should see with

is
while in
to
Luke
this
'va
finii.
part of the sentence
entirely wanting.
The attempt has been made

;
evacuate
and
25,
jjtfjTTOTt
of their strength, these being clearly the key-words
thus i;'a=oV(, and
TT0Te=ctKOTi:, " if
[ifiTTOTc SoJri
perchance
;"
to justify
which
last use, reference is
made
to
2 Tim.
avToTs b Oco; ncravoiav,
"
if
God peradventure
will give
them repentance
;"
so that thus
we
should get back to the old meaning, that the aim of his teaching by
if
parables was, because they could not understand in any other way, and
the
perchance
Lord would give them repentance.

jt{)TTOTt,
Now
there
is
no question that such might be way.
the sense given to

it
but even
is still
if
the
on could be
as successfully dealt with, whicii
certainly cannot, there
the passage of Isaiah in the
Where would
the
then
be the fulfilment of his prophecy?
There can be no doubt that
Prophet there
speaks of a penal blindness, as even Gesenius allows, a punishment of the foregoing

sins of his people,
and namely,
this
punishment, that they should be unable
to
recog-
nize
what was
divine in his mission

fulfilment,
and character
which prophecy had
its
ultimate
and crowning
when
the .Jewish people
were so darkened by previous carnal
thoughts and works, that they could see no glory and no beauty in Christ, could recognize nothing of divine in the teaching or person of
flesh.
It is
him who was God manifest
in the
not that by the
command,
"
Make
the heart of this people fat," (Isai. vi.
10),
we need understand
as though any peculiar hardening then passed
upon them, but
general aim* was not different from that of others
17
method of teaching, and who have desired thereby

either to illustrate or to prove, the truths
who have used this to make clearer,-]in
which they had
hand
to
say either
spiritual
to illustrate or to
prove
for the parable, or other
analogy
truth appropriated from the world of nature or

also in
merely
illustration, but
some
the
to the
sort proof.
It
is
man, is not not merely that

that
these analogies assist to

before, present
it
make
truth intelligible, or, if intelligible
more vividly
mind, which
is all
allow
them.:j:
Their power
lies
deeper than
this, in
the
some will harmony un-
that the
Lord having constituted as the righteous law of

and moral
his
moral government, that
sin should produce darkness of heart
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

in
Rom.
i.,
to
have taken
its
course with
the Gentile world
Augustine's awful words, Deus solus magnus, lege infatigabili

;
spargens pcenales csecitates super
illicitas cupidines who says also in another place, Quorundam peccatorum perpetrandorum facilitas, poena est aliorum praecedentium. The fearful curse of sin is that it ever has the tendency to reproduce itself, that he who sows in sin reaps in spiritual darkness, which delivers him over again to worse
;
sin
all
which
is
wonderfully expressed by Shakspeare
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.
this
Bacon has noted

est
double purpose of parables {Be Sap. Vet.)
Duplex apud
homines repertus
ad lumen
atque increbuit parabolarum usus, atque quod magis
mirum
sit,
ad contraria adhibetur.
Faciunt enim parabolas ad involucrum
et
velum, faciunt etiam

;
et illustrationem. See also De Augtn. Scient., 1. 2. c. 13 and the remarkable passage from Stobaeus, on the teaching of Pythagoras, quoted in Potter's
edit, of
Clemens Alexandrinus,
p.
676
note.
all
:
t This has been

ers
;
acknowledged on
viii.
sides, equally
thus Quintilian (Inst.
3, 72.)
Praeclare vero ad inferendam rebus
by profane and sacred writlucem

nostrae imbecili-
repertae sunt similitudines.

talis.
And
Seneca styles
them, adminicula
et
Again, they have been
called.
:
Mediae scientiam inter
ignorantiam.
The
author of the treatise ad Herennium
Similitudo sumitur aut ornandi causa aut proTertullian.
bandi, aut apertius docendi, aut ante oculos ponendi.

c.
(De Eesur. Car.,
33), expressly denies of parables, that they darken the light of the Gospel (obum-
brant Evangelii lucem).

S.
V. TTapalio\fj,
and Basil explains
See also the quotation from Chrysostom in Suicer's Tkes. it, Xoyof dxpiXtfioi fieT tiriKfivxpco}; fierpiai, with that
shall provoke, not
moderate degree of concealment which

appoint, inquiry.
such as shall repel or dis-
The Lord,
says Chrysostom (Horn. 69 in Matth.), spoke in para-
bles, ipeOiôyv KaX iityeipojv., ox as
he expresses
it
elsewhere (De Free, Serm. 2), that
we might
t
dive
down
Ita
into the deep sea of spiritual knowledge, from thence to fetch
up pearls and precious stones.
So SteUini
enim fere comparati sumus, ut cum impressionis

et quae novitate aliqua
vivacitate no-
tionis evidentiam
confundamus, eaque clarius

est,
intelligere nos arbetremur, quibus imagi-
nandi perculsa vis acrius
commendantur, ea
stabiliora sunt
ad diuturnitatem memoriae, neque vetustate
ulla consenescunt.
18
consciously
felt
by
all
men, and by deeper minds continually recognized

are
felt to
and plainly perceived, between the natural and spiritual worlds, so that
analogies from the
first
be something more than illustrations,
happily but yet arbitrarily chosen.

alleged as witnesses
for the
;
They
are arguments, and
may
be
the world of nature being throughout a witness
world of
root,
spirit,
proceeding from the same hand, growing out of
the
same
truth readily
All lovers of for that very end. acknowledge these mysterious harmonies, and the force of
and being constituted
arguments derived from them.

of the things in heaven.
To them the They know that
things on earth are copies

the earthly tabernacle
is
made
1
after
the pattern of things seen in
Chron. xxviii. 11,
mount (Exod. xxv. 40; 12;* and the question suggested by the Angel
the
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 ?"t
For
it is
a great misunderstanding of the matter to think of these as
happily, but yet arbitrarily, chosen illustrations,

selection from the great stock
taken with a skilful

;
and storehouse of unappropriated images

that the
from whence
it
would have been possible
same
skill
might have
to
;
selected others as good or nearly as good.
Rather they belong
one
they
It
another, the type and the thing typified, by an inward necessity
were linked together long before by the law of a secret

* See Irenjeus, Con. Hair.,
affinity.:}:
1.
4, c. 14, 3.
Many
are the sayings of a like kind
among
the Jewish Cabbalists.
Thus
in the
est
book Sohar, Quodcunque

in
in terra est, id etiam in ca?lo est, et nulla res

similii, quae in caelo est,
lam exigua
109,
mundo,
quae
non
alii
correspondeat.
d.
In Gfrorer's Vrv. 1,
:
christenthum,v. 2,
p.
26-30, and Bahr's Symb.
Mos.
Cult.,
p.
many
like passages are quoted.
No
all
one was
fuller of this
than Tertullian
see his magnifi-
cent words on the resurrection, (Z)e Res. Cam.,

witnesses of a resurrection,
rations,
c. 12).
All things here, he says, are
things in nature are prophetic outlines of divine opera(talia
God
not merely speaking parables, but doing them,
divinarum virium
again,
lineamenta, non minus parabolis operato Deo quam locuto).

c.
And
De Animd,
illustrait
43, the activity of the soul in sleep
is for
him
at once
an argument and an
tion
which God has provided
us, of its not

fidei, facilius
being tied to the body, to perish with

et
Deus .... manum porrigens sermonum, ita et rerum.

t
adjuvanda; per imagines
paraboles, sicut
Out of a
true sense of this has
grown our use of
the
word
likely.
There
is
confident expectation in the minds of
men
of the reappearance in higher spheres, of the

;
same laws and
relations wiiich they have recognized in lower

Butler's
and thus that which
is
like is also likely or probable.
Analogy
is
just the unfolding, as he himself

is
declares at the beginning, in one particular line of this thought, that the like
likely.
also the
ON^TEACHING BY PARABLES.
is
jg
not an
that
happy accident which has yielded so wondrous an analogy as of husband and wife, to set forth the mystery of Christ's relation to
Church.
his elect
There
is
far
more
in
it
than this
the earthly relait
tion is indeed but a
lower form of the heavenly, on which
rests,
and
of which
it
is
the utterance.
When
Christ spoke to
birth
into this
new
birth,
it
was not merely because
Nicodemus of a natural world was

is
the most suitable figure that could be found for the expression of that
spiritual act
which, without any power of our own,

into
accomplished
the circum-
upon us when we are brought

so great a mystery.
God's kingdom
but
all
stances of this natural birth had been pre-ordained to bear the burden of
The Lord
is
king, not borrowing this
title
from the
not the
kings of the earth, but having lent his
own
title to
them
and
name
its
only, but so ordering, that all

its
true rule and government upon

its
earth, with
righteous laws,
its
its
stable ordinances,
punishment and
and of his kingis
grace,
its
majesty and
ruleth over
terror, should tell of
Him
dom which
all
so that "
:
kingdom of God "

it is
not in fact a
figurative expression, but most literal
rather the earthly kingdoms
and the earthly kings that are figures and shadows of the true.
as in the world of
And
man and human
relations, so also is
it
in the
world of
nature.
The untended
ral harvest is a
soil which yields thorns and briars as its natupermanent type and enduring parable of man's heart,
which has been submitted

spiritual
to
the
same curse, and without a watchful

its
husbandry
will
as surely put forth
briars and its thorns.
The weeds
that will mingle during the time of

it
growth with the corn,
and yet are separated from

wicked.
at the last, tell
ever one and the same tale
of the present admixture, and future sundering of the righteous and the
The decaying
of the insignificant 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
tion,
final
resurrec-
even as
this is itself in its kind a resurrection,
at
a lower stage,
the
the
same power putting

always possible
itself forth
same process upon meaner
things.
Of course
and
this,
it
will be
for those
who
shrink from con-
templating a higher world-order than that imperfect one around them,
because the thought of such would rebuke their

littleness
fection
and
who
shrink too from a witness for
own imperGod so near
them as even that imperfect order would render it will be possible for them to say it is not thus, but that our talk of heavenly things is only a
transferring of earthly images and relations to
them
that earth is not

it,
a shadow of heaven, but heaven, such at least as
we
conceive
a dream
of earth
that the
names Father and Son
for instance
(and
this is
Arian-
ism) are only improperly used and in a secondary sense when applied to
20
difficulties
Divine Persons, and then are terms so encumbered with

contradictions that they had better not
find
and
not
be used at
all
that
we do
and recognize heavenly things
in their earthly counterparts, but
only
dexterously adapt them.

a deeper root than that
it
This denial
will be
always
;
possible,
and has
can be met with argument
yet the lover of a

his faith
truth which shall be loftier than himself will not be

that
moved from
upon
however man may be the measure of
all
things here, yet

sits
God
is
the
measure of man,
that the
same Lord who

fill
his throne in
heaven, does with the skirts of his train
his temple
upon earth
that
these characters of nature which everywhere meet his eye are not a
common
but a sacred writing
that they are hieroglyphics of
God
and
he counts
this his blessedness, that
he finds himself in the midst of such,
and because
in the midst
of them, therefore never without admonish-
ment and teaching. For such is in truth the condition of man around him is a sensuous world, yet not one which need bring him into bondage to his senses, but 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

their
in fleeing
from his fellows and

field
works and ways, but
in the
mart, on the wayside, in the
not by stripping himself bare of
all relations,
is to
but rather recognizing these
as instruments through which he
be educated into the knowledge

in
of higher mysteries
and so dealing with them
reverence, seeking
by
faithfulness to
them in their lower forms
to enter into their yet deeper
significance
entertaining
it is
them, though they seem but
and finding that he has unawares entertained Angels.

his revelation in words,
common And thus,
guests,
besides
without which
this
it
inconceivable
all its
God has another and an elder, and one indeed how that other could be made, for from
signs of communication.
to last,
appropriates
This entire moral

its
and
visible
world from
its
first
its
with
its
its
kings and
its
subjects,
its
its
parents and
its light
children,
sun and
moon,
its
sowing and
its
harvest,
and
its
darkness,
its
sleeping and
waking,
birth
and
its
death,
is
from beginning
to
end a mighty parable, a great teaching of

at
supersensuous truth, a help

ing.
It is
once
to
our
faith
and
to
our understand-
true that
men
are ever in danger of losing " the key of know,

to
ledge" which should open
them
the portals of
is
tliis
palace
and then
drudge.
instead of a prince in a world of wonder that

in the midst of this
serving him,
man moves
its
world, alternately
its
taskmaster and
Such we see him

tivated life
to
become
at the
two poles of savage and
falsely cul-
his inner
eye darkened, so that he sees nothing, his inner
ear heavy, so that there
21
him
:
come no
voices from nature unto

is
and
out
indeed in
all,
save only in the one Man, there
more
or less of the
dulled ear, and the filmed eye.

all
it.
There
is
none
to vi^hom
nature
tells
that she has tojell, and as constantly as she
would be willing
to tell
Now
the whole of Scripture, with

is
its
ever- recurring use of figurato
tive
language,
a re-awakening of
man
the
mystery of nature, a
:
giving back to him the key of knowledge, 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 heed to powers which were daily going forward in the midst of men, but which, by their frequency and their orderly repetition, that
ought
to
no more, had
be startled
have kindled the more admiration, had become wonder-works lost the power of exciting attention, until men had need to
anew
to
the contemplation
of the energies which were ever
working among them.

attention to the spiritual
all institutions
In
like
facts
manner the parables were a calling of which underlie all processes of nature,
and which, though unseen, are the
Christ
of
human
society,
true ground and support of these.
moved
in the
midst of what
seemed
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
to the
:
his being
he found that
to
it
answered with strange and marvellous cor-
respondencies
another world within him,
that oftentimes
it
helped
to
the birth great thoughts of his heart, which before
gling to be born,
that
were helplessly strugof these two worlds, without him and within, each
of a real teaching by parables, such
threw a light and a glory on the other.
For on
a teaching
this rests the possibility

as,
resting upon
air,
a substantial gi'ound, shall not be a
building on the
or painting on a cloud,
it is
mere
is
is
that the
world around us
a divine world, that
God's world, the world of the same God who

;
teaching and leading us into spiritual truth

of Gnostic and Manichsean,
that the horrible
dream
who would
is
set a great
gulf between the worlds
of nature and of grace, seeing this from a good, but that from an imperfect or an evil power,
lie
that being originally God's,
it is
sharer in his great redemption.
And
hope
:
yet this redeemed world, like

it is
man,
For
is
in part
redeemed only
in
not, that
is,
in the present
possession, but only in the assured certainty, of a complete deliverance.

this too
we must
not leave out of sight, that nature, in

its
its
present
;
state, like
it
man
himself, contains but a prophecy of

it
coming glory
its
" groaneth and travaileth ;"
cannot
it is
tell
out
all
secrets;
it
has
it
a presentiment of something, which

shall be.
It
not yet, but which hereafter

:
too
is
suffering under our curse
yet even thus, in
its
very
22
serving us, since
tlius
it
imperfection wonderfully
has apter signs and
more fitting symbols to declare to us our disease and our misery, and symbols not merely of the processes of their healing and removing ; but also of man's sins and wretchedness it has God's grace and power,
its
sores and
its
wounds,
its
storms and
its
wildern3sses,
its
lion
and
its
adder, by these interpreting to us deathâll that leads to death, no less
than by
its
more beneficent workings

life.
life
and
all
that tends to the re-
storing and maintaining of
But while thus

less does
it,
it
has this merciful adaptation

fallen estate,
to
our needs, not the

its full
in this
fails
its
come
short of
purpose and
meaning
it
in part to witness for a divine order,

this, its
as the philoso-
phic poet, whose eye was mainly directed to

ciency, exclaimed,
tantti Stat praedita
disorder and defi-
culpS
it
does not give always a clear witness, nor speak out in distinct accents,
of God's truth and love.

pression
Of
these
it
is
oftentimes the inadequate exall,
yea, sometimes seems not

But one day
it
to
declare them at
but rather in
to
volcano and in earthquake, in ravenous beasts, and in poisonous herbs,

tell
of strife and discord and disharmony, and

fall.
all
:
the woful consequences
of the
will be otherwise
it
one day
it
will be trans-
lucent with the
divine Idea which
embodies,
it
and which even now,
despite these dark spots, shines through
so wondrously.
For no doubt
always, as the
will then
the end and consummation will be, not the abolition of this nature, but the glorifying of
it,
that
which
is
now nature
{iiatura), birth,
word expresses
indeed born.
it,
striving and struggling to the
be
The new
creation will be as the glorious child born out

It will
of the world-long throes and anguish of the old.

casting
its
be as the snake
abolished,
its
wrinkled and winter skin

its
the old world not
but
putting off
soiled
work-day garments, and putting on

arrived
off its
holiday ap-
parel for the great Sabbath which shall have
at last.
Then,
deli-
when
it
too
shall
have put
is
bondage of corruption, shall be

it,
vered from whatever
now overlaying
which God
all
that
it
has at present of
dim and contradictory and perplexing

too, shall be a
shall
disappear.
This nature,
for
it
mirror in
will perfectly glass himself,
shall tell of nothing but the
marvels of his wisdom and power and love.

its
But
fall,
at present,
while this natural world, through

for the
share in man's
has
won
in
fitness
expression of the
that cling to
sadder side of man's
condition, the imperfection and evil
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, share
ON TEACHING
in the
to
B\^
PARABLES.
is
23
Obnoxious
shortcoming that cleaves

sin,
to all
which
of the earth.
change, tainted with
shut in within brief limits by decay and

to set forth
death, they are often
weak and temporary, when they have
things strong and eternal.
sinful
element
is
evidently mingled with

is
them, while they yet appear as symbols of what

heavenly.
entirely pure
and
The
he
father
They break down under the weight that is laid upon them. chastens after his own pleasure, instead of wholly for the
;
child's profit
in this unlike
that
heavenly Father, whose character

is to
is to set forth.
The
seed which
set forth the
word of God,
that
at
Word which
last.
liveth
and abideth
for ever, itself
decays and perishes
Festivals, so frequently the
of the
communion of the faithful when here celebrated, be mixed up with much that is carnal, and they come to their close in a few hours. There is something
will often,
all this in
image of the pure joy of the kingdom, with their Lord and with one another,
exactly analogous to
Scripture
the typical or parabolical personages of
the
men
that
are to set forth the Divine
Man.
Through
their sins, through their infirmities, yea, tions of their earthly condition,
through the necessary limitato
they are unable
carry the corre;
spondencies completely out.
Sooner or later they break down

it
and
very often even the part which they do sustain, they sustain
not for long.
Thus,
ple
this
for
instance, few
would deny the typical character of Solomon.

his reign, his
His kingdom of peace, the splendour of
wisdom, the tem-
which he reared,
an instant
is
all
point to a greater
whom
is
he foreshewed.
Yet
gorgeous forecasting of the coming glory

;
vouchsafed
to
us only
for
it is
but a glimpse of
it
we
catch.
Even
is
before his
reign
done,
all
is
beginning
to
dislimn again, to lose the distinctness
of
its
outline, the brightness of its colouring.

is
His wisdom
darkened,
the perfect peace of his land
no more
and the gloom on every side
encroaching warns us that

of the things.
this is but the
image, not the very substance,
Again we see some men,

history
in
whom
:
there
is
but a single point in their

;
which brings them
into typical relation with Christ
such was
one mobut then
consider
Jonah, the type of the Resurrection
or persons
whose
lives at
;
ment and another seem suddenly to stand out as symbolic sink back so far that we almost doubt whether we may dare
to
them
as such at
all,
and in whose case the attempt

detail
to
carry out the
resemblance into greater
wonld involve
in infinite
embarrasment.
It is
is
Samson
will at
once suggest himself as one of those.
scarcely
possible to believe that something

in the letter
more was not meant than
contained
when
out of the eater he brought forth meat, and out of the
strong, sweetness, (Judg. xiv. 14,) or
when he wrought a mightier
de-
liverance for Israel through his death than he had wrought in his
life.
24
(Judg. xvi. 30.)
is
Yet we
for
hesitate
how
far
in
every case,
is,
sonnewhere or other every

divine idea, which he
all
we may proceed. man is a

was meant
perfection.
to
And
liar
:
so
it
he
is
false, that
fails to
to the
it
embody, and
in-
bring
out in
the fulness of
its
So that of the
truths of
God
in the
language of men, (which language of course
cludes 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
it
must only be looked
for,
that
somewhere
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

is
misapprehensions of those
iii.
to
whom
the
language
addressed (as
John
11), or
by the language
itself,
though the best that human speech could supply,

selves,
failing
by
the
men themrace,
though
the noblest,
it
may
be, of their
all
its
age and
yet
to set forth the
divine truth in
fulness and
complete-
ness.*
No
doubt
it
was a
feeling,
working more or
all
less consciously, of the
dangers and drawbacks that attend
our means of communication, a
desire also to see eye to eye, or, as St.
Paul terms
it,
face to face,f
* It
is
now
rather
Cf.
U jiipovi, h
alviyjiari^
,
(5('
ccStrTpov, (1
8.
Cor.
xiii. 9,
12),
-napoifiiati,
(John xvi. 25).

caught
d.
Bernard, In Cant
215).
Serm. 31.
Persian mystical poet has
this tnith,
which he has
p.
finely expressed.
(See Tholuck's ElUthensamm. aus
Morgenl. Mystik,
Die Sinnenwelt ein Schatte
ist
der Geistwelt,
quellt.
Herab von
Die
in der
dieser jener
Nahrunsgmilch
GefQhle sind gefangene Monarchen,
Worte Kerker
sich verbargen.
Tritt das Unendliche in's
Herz des Weisen,

reisen.
Muss
flags hinab er
zum Verstande
Der muss die Schattenbilder ihm gewahren, Damit er konn' Unendliches erklaren. Doch nimmer ist das Abbild je volikommen, Nur Selbstverstandniss kann dir wahrhaft frommen.
Denn
Musst
f
ziehst
ausjedem Bild du Consequenzen,
hier
du Vieles wegthun, dort erganzen.

p.
John Smith {Select Disc,

Tapovclav.
If
159), observes that the later Platonists had three

icar' tTrior^/ii/i/,
terms to distinguish the different degrees of divine knowledge,
Kara v6rjaiv
and Kara
we assumed
these into Christian theology,
and
\.
they very
nearly agree with the threefold division of St. Bernard (Z?e Consid.,
opinio, the fides,
5, c. 3), the
and the
intellectus (intuition),
we
;
might say of the

:
first,
that
it
is
common
to
all
privilege of the
men, being merely notional, knowing about God the second is the faithful now, the knowing God the third, the airofiircia of the same
facierum of the Jewish doctors, will be their possession in the
is finally
school, the
Arcanum
world to come, the seeing God, the reciprocity of which
indicated
by Augus-
(1 Cor. xiii. 12,)
25
with such earnestall
which caused the mystics
to press
ness and frequency that
we
to
should seek to abstract ourselves from
images of things and naked truth
that
raise ourselves to the contemplation of pure
is
the height of spiritual attainment, towards
which we
should continually be struggling.*
But
it
in
requiring this as a test
and proof of spiritual progress,
in setting
as the
mark towards which

shall
men
should strive, they were not merely laying unnecessary burdens
on men's backs, but actually leading astray.

separate in his
the images
bols,
For whether one
own
consciousness the form from the essence,

shall
whether
symknow-
which he uses
be
to
him more or
not
less conscious
does
not depend on his greater or less advance in spiritual
ledge, but on causes which
and mainly on
this
one,
whether he
may
or
may
accompany
religious growth,
has been accustomed to think

in
upon his thoughts, to language he is using.
reflect
upon the wonderful instrument which
One who possesses the truth only as it is porated in the symbol, may yet have a far stronger hold upon it be influenced by it far more mightily may far more really be
ished
incor-
may
nour-
by
it
than another, who, according

state.
It
to the
mystic view, would be

indeed, that for
in
a higher and more advanced
is true,
them
it
who have
for others,
not merely to live upon the truth themselves, but to guard
not merely to drink 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 con-
scious the better, of the wonderful
thing which language
is,
of
the
power and mystery, of the truth and

truth, should for
falsehood, of words; and as a part

is
of this acquaintance, that the truth, and that which
the vehicle of the
them be separable
but then
it
should be even for

last
them
It
as soul and body, not as kernel and husk.

far,
is
This
comparison
has been often used, but when pushed
may
be pushed into an error.
has been said

when he terms
that, as
when
the seed
cast into the ground, after a
tine,
it,
Videre Videntem.
It
was
this,
according to
many
of the
Jewthy
life
;
ish interpreters,
which Moses craved when he
said, " I beseech

for
Thee, show
me
glory," but
which was denied him, as being impossible
man
in this present
live."
" Thou
18-20).
phets.
canst not see
my face,
for there shall
no
man
see
me, and
(Exod. xxxiii.
Yet he
too, they say,
came nearer
to this than
any other of the Lord's proIt is
(See Meuschen's N. T. ex Talm.

tradition, according to to
illustr., p.
373.)
a striking
fearful
Mohama thing
it
medan
which the Lord convinced Moses how

request, "
would be
comply with
his
Show me
thy glory,"
by suffering a spark of
upon a mountain,
that glory, the fulness of which
Moses had craved
to see, to fall
which
instantly burst into a thousand pieces.

is
* Thauler, for instance,
continually urging
emur et exuamur. Fenelon downward, agree in this.
Ut
ab omnibus imaginibus denudthe mystics, from
the
same
and indeed
all
Dionysius
26
time the kernel disengages itself from the outer coating, and alone
remains and
fructifies,
while the husk decays and perishes
so in the
fall
seed of God's word deposited in man's heart, the sensible form must
off,
that the inner

far,
germ
releasing itself
may
germinate.
But the image,

end
urged thus
to a
does not aptly set forth the truth
will lead in the
Quaker-like contempt of the written word, under pretence of having

life.
the inner
The
outer covering
is
not to
fall off
and perish, but to
become
for
glorified,
being taken up by, and
made
translucent with, the

so,
spirit that is within.
Man
is
body and
soul,
and being
the truth has
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
to
get at the soul.

for
Thus
all
it
was provided
in the
us by a wisdom higher than our own, and

will be only a
our attempts
disengage ourselves wholly from sensuous images
must always
end be unsuccessful.
for the
It
changing of
our images, and that

room.
worse
a giving up of living realities which
truly stir the heart, and getting dead metaphysical abstractions in their
The aim
element
it
of the teacher,
who would
find
his
to
way
to
the hearts
and understandings of
bolical
his hearers, will
never be
keep down the paraas
in his teaching, but rather to
make
much and
as fre-
quent use of
^ffort
as
;
he can.
for
And
all
to
do this effectually will need a fresh

is,
of his
own
while
language
and of necessity must be,
more or
less figurative, yet long familiar use has
worn out the freshness

so that to create a
of the stamp (who, for example, that speaks of msuZîTzg', retains the lively
image of a leaping on the

cast into novel forms as
prostrate
body of a
foe)
powerful impression, language must be recalled, minted and issued anew?
was done by him, of whom

its
it is
said, that with-
out a parable {naguôlr] in
widest sense) spake he nothing to his
hearers
that
is,
he gave no doctrine in an abstract form, no skeletons

it
of truth, but
all
clothed, as
were, with flesh and blood.
He
;
acted him-
self as he declared to his apostles they
must
act, if they
would be scribes
(Matt.
old
:
instructed unto the kingdom,
and able
to instruct others
xiii.
52;) he brought
help of the old he
forth out of his treasure things
new and
by the
made
the
intelligible the
new
by the
;
aid of the familiar
he introduced them
ed more easily
to
to that
which was strange
from the known he pass-
unknown.
all
And
in his
own manner
of teaching,
all
and
in his instructions to his apostles,
he has given us the secret of

it,
effectual teaching,
of
speaking which shall leave behind
as
was
said of one
man's eloquence, stings in the minds and memories of the
hearers.
There
is
a natural delight * which the

itself
mind has
in this
manner
To
like
* This delight has indeed impressed

thing
is
upon our language
itself.
to
compare
it
to
some other thing which we have already
before our natural,
of teaching, appealing as
it
27
does, not to the understanding only, but to
the feelings, to the imagination, and in short to the whole

it
man
calling as
does the whole

:
man with
all his
powers and faculties into pleasurable
activity
and things thus learned with delight are those longest rememspiritual truth,
bered *
.
Had our Lord spoken naked

of insight, would have passed
how many
of his words,
partly from his hearers' lack of interest in them, partly from their lack
away from
their hearts
and memories, leavto
ing scarcely a trace behind them.f
But being imparted
them
in this
form, under some lively image, in some short and perhaps seemingly
paradoxical sentence, or in some brief but interesting narrative, they
awakened
attention, excited inquiry,
and even
if
the truth did not at the
moment, by the help of

ories
the illustration used, find an entrance into the
mind, yet the words must thus often have fixed themselves in their
memis
and remained by them.:}:
And
here the comparison of the seed

life
appropriate, of which the shell should guard the

till
of the inner germ,

soil
that should be ready to unfold itself

it,
till
there should be a
pre-
pared for
its
in
which
it
could take root and find nourishment suitable to
memory were to many that heard money of another country, unavailable it might be for preof which they knew not the value, and only dimly knew that sent use, it had a value, but which yet was ready in their hand, when they reached that land and were naturalized in it. When the Spirit came and brought
needs.
His words laid up in the
him
like the
all
things to their remembrance, then he filled

its
all
the outlines of truth

all its
which they before possessed with

with the power and
the
spirit
substance, quickened
forms
of
life.
Not perhaps
at once, but gradually,
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
tion, the
all
true knowledge, which
is
not the communication of informaor capital of facts or theories from
transference of a dead
to another,
sum
one mind
but the opening of living fountains within the heart,

this process of
or our mind's, eye
and the pleasurable enaction always arising from

to use the
comparison has caused us

longed to
it
at the
first.
That we
like
word in a what is like
far
is
wider sense than that which be-
the explanation of the pleasure
which
rhymes give us. * Thus Jerome {Comm. in Matt.,
in loc.) describes the
purpose of the parable
Ut quod per simplex prseceptum

emplaque teneatur.
t
It
teneri ab auditoribus
non
potest, per similitudinem ex-
was no doubt from a deep
feeling of this that the

;
Jewish Cabbalists affirmed.
Lumen supernum nunquam

lucere divinum
\
descendit sine indumento
with which agrees the saying
of the pseudo-Dionysius, so often quoted by the schoolmen, Impossibile est nobis aliter
radium
nisi varietate
sacrorum velaminum circumvelatum.

vel involutum,
Bernard:
An
non expedit tenere
quod nudum non capis?
28
which
shall kindle
the scattering of sparks
seeds of truth, which shall take root in the
new
where they fall, the planting soil where they are cast,
their branches
and striking
shall
their roots
downward, and sending
upward,
grow up into goodly trees. Nor is it unworthy of remark, when we are estimating the extent of
parabolic element
is
the
in
Scripture,
how much
besides the spoken,
there
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 The whole Levitical constitution, with its outer court, its rea/ parable.
holy,
its
holiest of all,
its
high priest,
its
sacrifices,
and
all
its
ordinan-
ces, is such,
(ix. 9.)
and
is
declared to be such in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
The wanderings
who
of the children of Israel have ever been relife.
garded as a parable of the spiritual

abolic persons,
In like
manner we have
par-
are to teach us not
merely by what simply
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 quite unconsciously themas Abraham when he cast selves, which another should hereafter fill up bondwoman and her son, (Gal. iv. 30,) Jonah in the whale's belout the And in a (Ps. xxii.) ly, David in his hour of peril or of agony.
;
narrower
circle, 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 there was no other that would make so deep and so lasting an impression.
Thus Jeremiah
is to
break in pieces a potter's vessel, that he

;
may
foretell the complete destruction of his people
(xix.
1-11
;)
he wears
a yoke that he
may
;
be himself a prophecy and a parable of their ap(xxvii. 2

;
proaching bondage
of a redemption
xxviii.
10
;)
he redeems a
land,
field in
pledge
It
that shall yet be of all
the
(xxxii. 6-15.)
will at once be seen that these examples might be infinitely multiplied. And as God will have them by these signs to teach others, he continually
teaches them also by the same.
It is
prophets, but the great truths of his
not his word only that comes to kingdom pass before their eyes
first
his
in-
corporated in symbols, addressing themselves
to the spiritual
eye,
and only through that

nently Seers.
as those of
to the spiritual ear.
They
are indeed and emi-
Ezekiel and Zechariah

than, perhaps,
will at
once suggest themselves,
any others, this was true. And have a great example of the same teaching in in the New Testament we all the visions of the St. Peter's vision, (Acts x. 9-16,) and throughout
whom, more
Apocalypse. Nay,
est
we might
all,
venture to affirm that so
it
was with
the high-
and greatest truth of
that
which includes
it
all
others
the manifesintelligible
tation of God in the flesh.
This, inasmuch as
was a making
of the otherwise unintelligible
not
;
29
;
making
visible the invisible
a teaching
by
doctrine, but
by
the embodied doctrine of a divine

all
life,
was
the
highest and most glorious of
parables.*
With regard
by
St.
to the
is
record which
we have
of the Lord's parables,

first
they are found, as
well known, only in the three
Gospels
that
John containing allegories, as of the Good Shepherd,

(xv. 1,) but no parables strictly so called.
(x. 1,) the
True Vine,
and mainly
that Jesus
Of
the other
three, that of St.

for
Matthew was originally written for Jewish its leading purpose being the Jews of Palestine
;
readers,
to
show
was
the
the Christ, the promised Messiah, the expected
King of
him the
the
Jews
Son of David
the
fail to
Son of Abraham
appear
in the
that in
prophecies of the Old Testament found their fulfilment.

spirit of his
The
theocratic
Gospel does not
parables which he has
recorded
they are concerning the kingdom,
being
commonly
is
the de-
claration of things
whereunto " the kingdom of heaven

in St.
likened,"
Luke. The same theocratic purpose displays itself in the form in which the Marriage of the King's Son appears in his Gospel, compared with the parallel narration in Luke in the last, it is only a man who makes a great supper, while,
form which never once finds place
;
in
Matthew,
it is
a king, and the supper a marriage-supper, and that for
his son.
The main purpose which

Gospel was
to
St.
Luke had
tlie
show, not that Jesus was

;
before him in writing King of the Jews, but
his
the
Saviour of the woi'ld
and therefore he traces our Lord's descent, not
merely from David, the great type of the theocratic king, nor from
Abraham,
mankind.
the head of the Jewish nation, but from
Adam,
the father of
He, the chosen companion of the apostle of the Gentiles,
wrote his Gospel originally for Gentile readers, so that while St. Mat-
thew only records the sending out of the twelve

to the
apostles, corresponding
twelve tribes of Israel, he relates the mission of the seventy, anto the
swering
(supposed) seventy nations into which the world
at
Babel
was
divided.
He, as writing
for
heathens who had so widely departed

to
from God, has been most careful

cerning the free mercy of
ture from
record the Lord's declarations con-
God
his declarations that there is
no depar-
God
so wide as to preclude a return.

to
The
leading idea of St.
Luke's Gospel seems

cords.
istic
have guided him
in the parables
which he
re-
In this view, the three at chapter xv. are especially characterlast, that
of his aim, and more particularly the
of the Prodigal Son,

and
in
* See a few words on this in the Epistle of Barnabas,

(Strom.,
ypo^wi'
1.
c. 5,
Clem. Alex.
^^'^PX'^
''^^'
6, Potter's Ed.,
p.
803), he begins, Ilaoa/JoXiKoj y"?

ojv
o x"'P""''^'iP
SiOTt Kal h
KCpiOf, ovK
xocîKOf e!i dvOponrovs rjXdev,
30
and not
less so that of
ON THE INTERPRETATION
Dives and Lazarus,
if,
as Augustine, Theophylact,
and some
later
commentators have suggested, we
may
take Dives to sig-
nify the Jews, richly abounding with all blessings of the
knowledge of
God, and glorifying themselves in those blessings, while Lazarus, or the Gentile, lay despised at their door, a heap of neglected and putrifying
sores.
Again, the fact that
the poor
wounded man, (Luke
corded not
was a Samaritan who showed kindness to x. 30,) would seem also to have been rewithout an especial aim, to be traced up to the same leading
it
idea of his Gospel.

St.
Mark has
but one Parable which
is
peculiar to himself, that of

is
the Seed growing
by
itself,
(iv.
26,)
in
which
nearly related in subit
stance to that
of the Mustard Seed
Matthew, the place of which
ap-
pears
to
occupy.
There
is
not,
believe, anything so peculiar in his
record of the parables as to call for especial notice.
CHAPTER
III.
ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PARABLES.

The
parables,
fair in
their
outward form,
in
are
yet fairer within

it-
apples of gold in network of silver: each one of them like a casket,

self of exquisite
workmanship, but
Avhich,
which jewels yet richer than

to look
itself
is
are laid up
or as fruit,
still
however lovely
upon,
yet
more delectable
key
to
lost,
in
its
inner sweetness.*
To
find then the

its
golden
;
for this casket, at the

this fruit, so that
touch of which
its
it
shall reveal
treasures
open
nothing of
hidden kernel shall be missed or
has naturally been regarded ever as a matter of high concern.f

in this, the interpretation of the parable, a subject to
And
now
step
;
which we have
arrived, there
is
one question which presents

of them
is
itself
?
anew
at
every
how much ject there have been among Some have gone a great way
namely
this,
significant
and on
this sub-
interpreters the
in saying,
most opposite theories.

is
;
This
make
merely drapery and

this
ornament, and not the vehicle of essential truth

either as useful to given liveliness
was introduced
which
is
and a general
air of verisimilitude to
the narrative, or as actually necessary to
the story,
the
* Bernard
quis fregerit t
Superficies ipsa,
tanquam a
foris considerata,
sit,
decora est valde
et si
nucem,
intus inveniet
xii.)
:
quod jucundius
et
mulio amplius delectabile.
Jerome {In Ecclea.
Parabola; aliud in medulla habent, aliud in superficie
poUicentur, et quasi in terra aurum, in nuce nucleus, in hirsutis castanearum operculis
absconditus fructus inquiritur, ita in eis divinus sensus altius perscrutandus.
OF PARABLES.
substratum of the truth, a consistent whole, since without
3|
this consist-
ency the hearer would be both perplexed and offended,

and connect the
other.*
all
to
hold together
different parts, just as in the

for their
most splendid house there
must be passages, not
own
sake, but to lead from one
room
to an-
Chrysostom continually warns against pressing

short
in
too anxiously
the circumstances of a parable, and often cuts his
somewhat
rest
t""!"
language
like
this,
" Be
own
interpretation
not
curious about the
and
in like
:|:
manner, the interpreters that habitually follow him,

faithful to their
Theophylact
ciples.
and others, though not always
own
prin-
So
also Origen,
who
great beauty.
He
says,
meaning by a comparison of " For as the likenesses which are given in picillustrates his
tures 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
serve the likeness which consists in prominences and depressions, but
not as well that which
is
in
while a colours but should
statue, again, seeks to pre-
the statue be of wax,
it
seeks to retain both,
mean
the colours, and also the depressions
and
is not an image of those things which are within in same manner, of the parables which are contained in the Gospels so account, that the kingdom of heaven, when it is likened to anything, is
prominences, but
the
not likened to
it
according
to all the things

is
which are contained

according
to
in that
with which the comparison

ties
instituted, but
certain quali-
which the matter

it
in
hand requires. "
Exactly thus in modern

its
times
has been said that the parable and

c. 9)
interpretation are not
* Tertullian {De Pudicitid,
Quare centum oves?
et
quid
utique decern
gralissi-
drachmae?
et quae
illae
scop?
Necesse erat qui unius peccatoris salutem
mam
Deo
volebat exprimere, aliquam numeri quantitatem nominaret, de quo

:
unum
qujdem perisse describeret
necesse erat ut habitus requirentis
drachmam
in
domo, tam
scoparum quam lucernae adminiculo accommodaretur.

veritate.
Hujusmodi enim
curiositates et
suspecta faciunt quaedam, et coactarum expositionum subtilitate plerumque deducunt a
Sunt autem quae
et simpliciter posita sunt
ad struendam et disponendam
et
texendam parabolam.ut
J.
C,
p.
175)
exemplum procuratur. Brower {DePar. Talia omittinon potuerunt,quoniam eorum tantum ope res ad eventum
illuc
perducantur, cui
facile perduci posset, ciim alioquin saltus fieret aut hiatus in narratione,qui rei narratae
similitudini
omnino noceret,
nepiepydôv.
vel quia
eorum neglectus auditores fortasse ad inanes
quses-
tiones et dubitationes invitare posset.
t TdXXo
t
i^ri
Theophylact (In Luc. XVi.)
Tliiaa Trapa0o\!i TrXayitoj Kai etKovtKoJs Slôi irpayfidrtov

Trpayiiatjiv tKcivoii, St'
Ttvoiv ipiaiv, oi
TOL
Kara navTa ioiKvTa tois
napeXfiipOri.
ii'
S oiSi
j^jsJ)
navra
ficpi Tbiv Trapa0o\6iv XsTroif TroXxinpaynovevcirBai,

tai/, toj
dW
baov soikc
Tto TTpoKtijiCvo) Kapnovixei/ovi.
Ta Xoiira
tj iTapa0o\}j
avvvipiaTaij).tva, Koi iir,ilv irpos to TrpoKciftcvov cvjjpa'Wfipei'a.
Comm.
in
Matth.
xiii.
47.
32
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 in one.
On
same
the other hand,
Augustine, though sometimes laying down the

all
principle,
frequently extends the interpretation through
the
less,
branches and minutest fibres of the narrative,* and Origen not

despite the passage
which
have just quoted.
And
I
in
modern times,
in affirming
the followers of Cocceius

all
have been particularly earnest

Perhaps,
parts of a parable to be significant. f
might mar the plea-
sure of some readers in the following noble passage, by saying from
whence
it
rious care
was drawn but the writer which he took to master the

:
is
describinnr the loner and labo-
literal
meaning of every word
in
the parables, being confident of the riches of inward truth which every
one of those words contained

tude worthy
he goes on
to say,
" Of my
I
feelings and
simili.
progress in studying the parables of our Lord,

to
have found no
convey the impression, save

into the
that of sailing through be-
tween the Pillars of Hercules
Mediterranean Sea, where you
have
to pass
between armed rocks,
in a strait,
and under a current

past,
requiring careful and skilful seamanship
but being
that
all
opening
into
such a large, expansive, and serene ocean of truth, so engirdled round

with rich and
fertile lands, so inlaid
with beautiful and verdant islands,

cities,
and
full
of rich colonies and

it
populous
unspeakable
is
the
delight and the reward
yieldeth to the voyager."

it
On
a review of the
whole controversy
may
safely be said, that the
advocates of the first-mentioned scheme of interpretation have been too

easily satisfied with
halt
sity
somewhere ?" There
;":}:
favourite saying " Every comparison must since one may well demand, " Where the neces.
their
is
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 become one, nor cease

through their whole course
be parallel,
to
;
to
be two, because they run parallel

to
it
needs not that they somewhere cease

being one and the same.
It
prevent them from

too,
may
well be considered,
whether these interpreters,
in their fear ofcapriIt is
cious allegories, have not run into an opposite extreme.

to
quite true,
is
use an illustration which they sometimes employ, that a knife

* See a wonderful instance of the extent
not
all
to
which
this
1.
may
be done in an exposi-
tion of the Prodigal
Son, given
in
in his
Quast. Evang.,
2. qu. 33. this principle
Teelman (Comm.
Luc.
xvi., p.
34-52) defends
at
length and
with
I
much
ability.
Omne
simile claudicat.
(in
Theophylact
Suicer's Thcs.,
S.
v. irapaffoM)
i';
'H
vapaffoXr), eav Sia -iravTWV
au^n-
rai, ovK ecTt TrapalSoXl',
dW avrd CKCtvo,
(!('
TrapaQoXfi.
OF PARABLES,
edge, nor a
33
which does not
musical
in-
harp
all
strings
that
much
in the knife,
cut, is yet of
prime necessity, as the handle,

is
much,
in the
strument, which
not 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,
it
are yet requisite to
make
the shaft to pierce,

It is
and
that
do both convey
in the other
to
and penetrate the mark."*

interpretation, there is the
true, also,
scheme of
danger
lest a delight
in the exercise of ingenuity
on the part of the interpreter, and admira-
tion of the ingenuity so exercised
on the side of the readers and hearers,

of the heart through
as there will pre-
may
cause
is
it
to be forgotten that the sanctification
the truth
the
main purpose of
all
Scripture
even
sently be occasion to observe
how
heretics, through this pressing of all
parts of a parable to the uttermost,
have been wont
to
extort from
it
almost any meaning that they pleased.

Yet, on the other hand, there
is
a shallow spirit ever ready to
Scripture of the depth of its meaning, toexclaim

this
" This
empty means nothing,

all
circumstance
is
not
to
be pressed ;" and satisfying ourselves with

foil to
sayings like these,

riches of
we may
draw out from the word of God

it
the
meaning
that are contained in
for us,
we may
fail to
observe
to cor-
and
to
admire the wisdom with which the type was constructed

its
respond with
instance,
is
antitype.
For
as a
work of human
that the
art, a statue, for
the
more perfect
in the
measure
life,
the idea that
* Boyle's Style of the
Holy Scriptures
1.
Fifth Objection.
There
is
a remarkable
passage in Augustine (Z?e Civ. Dei,

ther
;
16,
c. 2),
where he
carries out this
view
still
fur-
Non
sane omnia quae gesta narrantur, aliquid etiam significare putanda sunt
ilia
sed propter
quae aliquid significant, etiam
ilia
quae nihil significant attexuntur.
Solo enim vomere terra proscinditur, sed ut hoc

bra sunt necessaria.
fieri possit,
etiam CcEtera aratri
mem-
Et
soli
nervi in citharis atque hujusmodi vasis musicis aptantur

et
ad cantum, sed ut aptari possint, insunt
caetera in
compaginibus organoruni, quae

Ita in
non percutiuntur
significant, et
a canentibus, sed ea quae percussa resonant his connectuntur.
prophetica historia dicuntur et aliqua, quae nihil significant, sed quibus adhaereant quae
1. 22. c. 94. A Romish expositor, Certum est gladium non omni ex parte scindere, sed una tantilm nee enim per manubrium secat, neque per partem obtusam oppositam aciei, neque per cuspidem, sed tantilm per aciem secat. Et tanien
quomodo
religentur.
Cf. Con.
Faust.
:
Salmeron has a comparison something similar

:
nemo
tamen
Ita in
sanae mentis dixerit aut
aciei, necessaria
nod esse ad scindendum
manubrium aut cuspidem aut partem obtusam oppositam nam etsi per se ipsa non scindant, serviunt
:
ut pars quae acuta cst,et
adsecandum
nata, scindere fortiilsetcommodius valeat.
parabolis multa afferuntur, quae etsi per se ipsa
sensum spiritalem non

et secet,
efficiant,
conducunt tamen ut parabola per illam partem scindat

ab auctore proposita fuerat.
ad quod praestandum
34
was
in the sculptor's
mind, breathes out of and looks through every feathe greater being the triumph of spirit, pene;
ture and limb,
so
much
trating 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 it is arrayed, is a garment
of light, pierced through, as
brightness within,
was once
it
the raiment of Christ, with the
illuminating leaving no dark place by

in
it,
in all its recesses
and corners, and
so
much
the
more
beautiful and perfect
it
must be esteemed.
It
may
be further answered, that of those
who
start with the principle that so
much
is to
be set aside as non-essential,

it
scarcely are to be found any two agreed,

tion of their principle,
when
comes
to the applica.
;
concerning what actually
is to
be set aside
it is
what
one
rejects,
another retains, and the contrary.

is
Moreover,
always
observable that the more this system

liar
carried out, the

in
beauty of the parable disappears, and the interest

will not allow the
oil in
more the pecuit is weakened. more than any

all their
For example, when Calvin

XXV.)
other,
to
the vessels (Matt.
mean anything, and when

all that
Storr,* who, almost
would leave the parables bare trunks, stripped of
foliage
and branches, of
made
for
beauty and ornament, denies that the

once evident
Prodigal leaving his father's house has any direct reference to man's
departure from the presence of his heavenly Father,
it is
at
of
how much,
It
not merely of pleasure, but of instruction, they would
deprive us.
may
first
be remarked
too, in opposition to the interpretation
of the parables merely in the gross, that

preted the two
when our Lord himself
inter-
which he delivered, those of the Sower, and of the

that he intended to furnish us with
Tares,
it
is
more than probable
key
for the interpretation of all.
These explanations therefore are most

sakes, but as laying
to
important, not merely for their

ciples
own
down
the prin-
and canons of interpretation
be applied throughout.
Now
in
these the moral the narrative

:
application descends to
some of the minutest
details of
thus, the birds
which snatch away the seed sown, are exxiii.
plained as Satan
who
takes the good word out of the heart, (Matt.

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

luck,f " that
a"
"
It
must be allowed," says Thoit is
similitude
;:t^
is
perfect in
proportion as
on
all
sides
rich in applications
and hence,
in treating the parables of Christ, the
De Paraholis
Christi, in his Opusc. Acad., v. 1, p. 89.
t Auslegung der Bergpredigt.p. 201.

says,
t
With
this
agrees what Bishop
Lowth
De
Sac. Pods. Heb., Pral. 10.
Vitringa: Placent mihi qui ex parabolis Christi
Domini plus
veritatis eliciunt,
quam
generate
quoddam prajceptum ethicum,
per parabolam illustratum et auditorum
animis fortius infiium.
Non quod
audaciter pronunciare sustineam, ejusmodi insti-
OF PARABLES.
expositor
35
that there
it,
must proceed on the presumption
is
import in every
it
single point, and only desist from seeking

result without forcing, or >vhen
when
show
either
do.es
not
we can
for the
clearly
that this or that

to
circumstance was merely added

the narrative.
sake of giving intuitiveness
We
should not assume anything to be non-essential,

it
except
when by
holding
fast as essential
the unity of the whole
is
marred and troubled."*
It
will
much
not,
if,
help us in this matter of determining what

before
is
essential
and what
we
attempt to explain the particular parts,
we
obtain fast hold of the central truth which the parable would set forth,
and distinguish
all
it
in the
mind
as sharply and accurately as

it
;
we can from
"
cognate truths which border upon
for only
seen from that middle
point will
the different parts appear in their true light.

late writer
One may
compare," says a
on the
parables,"!"
" 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
radii
its
perfect shape, nor will the beautiful unity with

to a single point
which
the
converge
be perceived, but this
is all
observed so
soon as the eye looks forth from the centre.
Even
so in the parable, if
tutionis
aut
persuasionis
genus,
si
Domino
nostro placuisset
illud
adhibere,
cum
summS
Domini
ejus sapientia
non potuisse
consistere.
Contendo tamen de summa sapientia

si
qualis ilia fuit Filii Dei, nos merito plus praesumere, ac propterea,
ita
parabolee Christi
explicari queant, ut singulse
earum
partes
commode
et
absque violentis
contorsionibus transferantur ad oeconomiam Ecclesiae, illud ego explicationis genus
tanquam optumum amplectendum,

plus solidae
veritatis
et cseteris
praeferendum existimo.
si
Quanto enim
ex Verbo Dei eruerimus
nihil
obstet,
tanto magis divinam
commendabimus
sapientiam.
* Out of this feeling the Jewish doctors distinguished lower forms of revelation
from higher, dreams from prophetic communications thus, that

essential, while the
in the
higher
all
;
was
and
there
dream
they framed this axiom,
" As
when
ordinarily contained something that there

is
was
superfluous
is
no corn without straw, so neither
any mere dream without something
that is dpySv, void of reality

;
and
insignificant."
They would
instance Joseph's
left
dream
all
(Gen. xxivii. 9
;)
the
moon
could not there
have been well
out,
the heavenly host did obeisance to
him
yet this
circumstance was thus dpydv, for his mother,
who
j).
thereby was signified,
then dead, and so incapable of rendering hereafter the homage to

others at last did.
was even him which the

has been
(See John Smith's Discourses,

p.
178.)
+ Lisco
Die Paraheln Jesu,

how,
22
a sound
and
useful work.
It
translated into English
may
be guessed by a single specimen.
Having occaof
it
sion to characterize Vitringa's
ErklHrung der Paraholen, Lisco observes
thus
1000 Seiten starkes Werk, breiter Sprache (a book more than a thousand pages thick, very diflfuse) which however reappears in the translation " A work of great power in many respects, in broad dialect."
iiber
:
Ein
36
its
we have recognized
middle point,
its
main doctrine,
in full light, then
will the proportion 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, which at the same time is so simple and obvious, that were it not very frequently neglected,
it
would hardly be thought needful

the
to
be mentioned, but might

It is this,
be
left to
common
sense of every interpreter.
that as in
the explanation of the fable, the introduction (nôixvd-iov) and application {ini^v&iov)
claim to be most carefully attended
to,
so here
what
some have
entitled the pro-parabola
and epi-parabola, though the other

to look for the
terms would have done sufficiently well, which are invariably the fingerposts pointing to the direction in
which we are
meaning,
the key
instance,
to the
whole matter.
These deserve the most
attentive heed,
;
as their neglect often betrays into the most untenable explanations
for
how many
the
of the interpretations which have been elaborately

in the
worked out of
Labourers
Vineyard, could never have been so
much
as once proposed, if heed had been paid to the context, or the ne-
cessity
been acknowledged of bringing the interpretation
into
with the saying, which introduces and winds up the parable.
harmony These
helps to interpretation, though rarely or never lacking,* are yet given

in
no fixed or formal manner
sometimes they are supplied by the Lord

sometimes, as the prologue,
;)
himself, (Matt. xxii. 14; xxv. 13;) sometimes by the inspired narrators
of his words,
(Luke xv.
1,
2;
xviii.
1 ;)
they precede the parable, (Luke
xviii.
9; xix. 11
sometimes, as the
epilogue, they follow, (Matt. xxv. 13;
Luke
its
;
xvi. 9.)
Occasionally a
parable
is
furnished with these helps to

its
right understanding
and ap-
plication both at
opening and
its
close
is
as
is
that of the
Unmerciful
Servant, (Matt, xviii. 23,) which
suggested by the question which

the application
Peter asks, (ver. 21,) and
wound up by
which the Lord
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.
himself makes, (ver. 35.)
* Tertullian (De Resttr. Carn. ,c. 33): Nullum parabolam non aut ab ipso invenias
edisseratam, ut de Seminatore in verbi administratione
:
aut k commentatore Evangelii

;
praeluminatam, ut judicis superbi et vidua? instantis ad perseverantiam orationes

ultro conjectandani, ut arboris fici.dilata: in
aut
spem, ad instar Judaicae infructuositatis.
t Salmeron (Senn. in Evang. Par.,
p.
19) has a threefold division of the parable,

things, he says, which, in proceeding to in-
which
terpret
is
worth noticing.
There are three

;
it,
claim our attention

final
;
the radix or root out of

it is
which
it
grows, which
is
may
it
also
be regarded as the
for in the irpofiiOiov
itself;
cause or scope with which
spoken, which
to be looked
next, the cortex or the outward sensuous array in which

the spiritual truth
clothes
and then the medulla, or inward core,
which
it
enfolds.
OP PARABLES.
Again,
37
we may
its
observe that an interpretation, besides being thus in

context,
it
accordance with
being applied
interpretation
to
bring
into
must be so without any very violent means such agreement even as, generally the
;
must be easy
if not
it is
always easy
to
be discovered, yet
;
being discovered, easy.

proleptic
For
here as with the laws of nature

to
the
mind of genius may be needful

it
discover the law, but being

itself
discovered,
throws back light on
itself,
and commends
;
unto
all.
And
law
there
that
is
it
this other point of similarity also
it
is
the proof of the
explains
all
the
phenomena and
in
not merely
some
it:
that
it is
sooner or later they
all
marshal themselves
order under
so
tolerable evidence that

ble, if
it
we have found
the right interpretation of a para-
leave none of the main circumstances unexplained.

itself,
false
interpretation will inevitably betray
since
it
will
" invariably
paralyze and render nugatory some important

count."
If
member
parts,
of an entire ac-
we have
will
the right
key
in
our hand, not merely some of the
wards, but
all,
have their corresponding

will scarcely
and moreover the

if
key
will turn
without grating or over-much forcing; and

it
the right interpretation,
need
to
be defended and
we have 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
but
not be
made
first
sources of doctrine.
Doctrines otherwise and already grounded

further confirmed
trine first
may
be illustrated, or indeed
by them
it is
not allowable to constitute docthe outer ornamental fringe, but
by
their aid.f
They may be
* That which is required in a satisfactory solution, is well stated by Teelman (Comm. in Luc, 16, p. 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 influens, appropriata, proxima, et ab omni
:
longa petitione remota.

t This rule finds
est argumentativa.
cia.
its
expression in the recognized axiom
Theologia parabolica non
And
again
Ex
1.
solo sensu litterali peti possunt

2, c. 13,
argumenta
efiica-
See Gerhard's Loc. Theol.,

1.
202.
There
is
a beautiful passage in
Anslem's Cur Deus Homo,

ceived and believed,
ply to one
1, c. 4,
on the
futility of
using as primary arguments what
indeed can but serve as graceful confirmation of truths already on other grounds re-
and against gainsayers most of

him with
quaedam
all.
The
sed
si
objector
is
who
presses
the wonderful correspondencies of Scripture

:
made to reOmnia
:
haec pulcra et quasi
picturae suscipienda sunt
non
sit
aliquid solidum
super quod sedeant, non videntur infidelibus satisfacere

aliquid eligit solidum super quod pingat, ut
in aqua vel in aSre
;
nam
qui picturam vult facere,
maneat quod
pingit.
Nemo enim
pingit
quia
ibi
nulla
manent
pictures vestigia.
Qua
propter cfim has
convenientias quas dicis, infidelibus quasi quasdam picturas
rei gestae
obtendimus, quo;
niam non rem gestam sed figmentum
arbtrantur esse quod credimus

est
quasi super nusoliditas.
bem
pingere nos existimant.
Monstranda
prius
veritatis
rationabilis
38
not the
tive,
main texture, of the
to the
from the clearer
proof. For from the literal to the figuramore obscure, has been ever recognized as
the law of Scripture interpretation.

forgotten,
to sustain
This
rule,
however, has been often
and controversialists, looking round
for
arguments with which

find
some weak
position,
one
for
which they can
no other sup-
port in Scripture, often invent for themselves supports in these.
Thus
Bellarmine presses the parable of the Good Samaritan, and the circumstance that in that the thieves are said Jirst to have stripped the traveller,
and afterwards
which,
to
have
inflicted
wounds on him,
as proving certain
fall,
views of the Romish Church on the order of man's

in
first
the succession
losing heavenly gifts, the robe of a divine righteousness,
he afterwards, and as a consequence, endured actual hurts in his soul.*
And
in the
same way Faustus Socinus argues from the parable of the

his servant
Unmerciful Servant, that as the king pardoned

petition, (Matt, xviii. 22,)
merely on
his
and not on account of any
satisfaction
made,
or
that in the
any mediator intervening, we may draw from this same way, and without requiring sacrifice
his debtors
the conclusion, or intercessor,
God pardons
But
too
simply on the ground of their prayers.
far the greatest sinners against this rule in old time, especially the former.
to these,
Manichaeans
were the Gnostics and The parables were far

for their
welcome
who could
find
no colour
to
scheme
in the
plain declarations of Scripture, for
them
allow themselves to be robquarter,
bed of the help which they hoped

to
to find in this
by attending
any such canon as this. The whole scheme of the Gnostics 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

to
;
not
to
learn
its
language, but
to see if
they could not compel

q/*
it
speak
theirs.::!:
They came
with no desire to draw out

istae
Scripture
Deinde, ut ipsum quasi corpus veritatis plus niteat,

corporis sunt exponendae.
*
dixit,
convenientice, quasi picturse
De Grat. Prim. Horn. : Neque enim sine causa Dominus in parabola ilia hominem spoliatum, posterius autem, vulneratum fuisse, cCim tamen contra
;
prius
acci-
dere soleat in veris hitrociniis
nimirum
indicare voluit, in hoc spirituali latrocinio ex
ipsa amissione justitiae originalis nata esse vulnera nostrae naturae.
(See Gerhard's Loc.
TAeoZ., ioc. 9.
c. 2.
86.)
t Deyling, Ohss. Sac, v. 4, c. 649.

Scripture interpretation as of
Socinus here sins against another rule of
common
sense,
which
is,
that
we
are not to expect in
every place the whole circle of Christian truth to be fully stated, and that no conclusion
may
be drawn from the absence of a doctrine from one passage which
is
clearly stated
;
in others.
Jerome (Adv. Jovin.,
1.
2)
Neque enim
in
omnibus
iocis
docentur omnia
Bed unaquaeque similitude ad id refertur cujus est similitudo.

X
Jerome
Ad
voluntatem suam Scripturam trahere repugnantem.
OF PARABLES.
its
39
meaning, but
to thrust into
Scripture their own.*

it
When
they
fell
thus to picking and choosing from

the parables
what was best adapted
to their ends,
would naturally
;
invite
portions of Scripture
portions of Scripture
for
it
was
plain that they
them almost more than any other must abandon the literal
their only refuge
was
in the figurative, in those
which might receive more interpretations than one ; such perhaps they might bend to their purposes. Accordingly we find them revelling in
these
;
with no joy indeed in them, on account of their simplicity or

;
practical depth or ethical beauty

feeling of these
;
for
they seem
to
have had no sense or

their
but delighted to superinduce

Irenseus
is
upon them
own
ca-
pricious and extravagant fancies.
continually compelled to
vindicate the parables against them, and to rescue
them from the extreme
abuse
to
which they submitted them, who 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.t Against them he lays down that canon, namely, that the parables cannot be in any case the original or the exclusive foundations of any doctrine, but must be themselves interpreted
according
to the
analogy of
faith
since, if
every subtle solution of one

dignity and authority of a
of these might
raise itself at once to the
Christian doctrine, the rule of faith would be nowhere.

to
So
to build
were
build not on the rock, but on the

* Irenaeus,
sand.ij:
1.
1, c.
8: Ut figmentum illorum non sine teste esse videatur.
All this
very nearly repeats
itself in
Swedenborg,
in
whom,
indeed, there are
many
resem-
blances to the Gnostics of old, especially the distinctive one of a division of the Church
into spiritual
tation, thus
speaks
and carnal members. One, estimating his system of Scripture interpre" His spiritual sense of Scripture is one altogether disconnected
:
from the
literal sense, is
rather a sense before the sense

that
not a sense to which one
mounts up from the steps of

cle,
which
is
below, but in which one must, as by a miraof,
be planted, for
it is
altogether independent
and disconnected from, the
acci-
dental externum superadditum of the literal sense."
t In a striking passage (Adv. Har.,

Scripture, their violent transpositions of
their hands, to their fraud,
1.
1,
c.
8),
he likens their dealing with

a different thing in
it till it
became altogether
who
should break up some work of exquisite mosaic,
wrought by a
the pieces
skilful artificer to present the effigy of a king,
and should then recompose

to express
upon some wholly
different plan,
and make them
some
vile
im-
age of a fox or dog, hoping that, since they could point

they should be able to persuade the simple that
t
to the'stones as
being the same,

still.
this,
was
the king's
image
Thus Con.
HcBr.,
1.
2, c. 27.
Et ideo parabolas debent non ambiguis adaptari

ab omnibus similiter abso-
sic
enim
et qui absolvit sine periculo absolvit, et parabolse

:
lutionem accipient
et a veritale corpus integrum, et simili aptatione
membrorum
et
sine concussione perseverat.
Sed
erit
quae
non aperte
dicta sunt neque ante oculos posita,
copulare absolutionibus parabolarum, quas unusquisque

est].
prout vult adinvenit [stultum
Sic
enim apud nullum
regula veritatis, sed quanti fuerint qui absolvent para-
bolas, tantae videbuntur veritates pugnantes
semet invicem.
So too
c.
Quia autem
parabolae possunt multas recipere absolutiones, ex ipsis de inquisitione Dei affirmare,
40
Tertullian has the
the Gnostics
brain,
same conflict to maintain. The whole scheme of was a great floating cloud-palace, the figment of their own
in the actual
and having no counterpart

it
world of
realities.
They
diffi-
could therefore shape or mould

culty then in
as they would.
They
found no
forcing the parables to be
upon their
side.
For they
readily modified their scheme, shaping their doctrine according to the
leadings and suggestions of these,
till
they brought the two into apparent

to
agreement with one another.

their doctrine
There was nothing
hinder them here
was
not a fixed body of divine truth to
which they could
neither add nor take away, which
which they could only acquiesce

and they could invent and fashion
their purposes.
but
it
was given them from above, and in it was an invention of their own,
as they pleased, and as best suited
We,
as Tertullian often says, are kept within limits in
the exposition of the parables, accepting as

as the rule to us of truth,
It
we do
the other Scriptures
as the rule therefore of their interpretation.

;
is
otherwise with these heretics
their doctrine
is
their
own
they
can
first
dexterously adapt
it
to
the parables,
its
and then bring forward
this adaptation as a
testimony of
truth.*
the early Church, exactly so
;
As
it
was with the Gnostics of
was
it
with the cognate sects of a later day, the Cathari, and Bogomili
too found in the parables
tion,
they
no teaching about sin and grace and redempfitted to

fall
no truths of the kingdom of God, but

evil,
them the speculations
about the creation, the origin of
the
of angels, which were
uppermost
in their minds,
which they had not drawn from Scripture, but
which having framed, they afterwards turned to Scripture to find if there was not something there which they could compel to fall into their scheme.
reliiiquentes
quod ccrtum
et
indubitatum et veram
est,
valde praecipitantium se in
]
periculum et irrationabilium esse, quis non amantium veritatem confitebitur

quid hoc est non in petia firnia et valida et in aperto posita Jedificare
et nura-
suam domum,
Cf.
sed in incertum effusae arenae

1.
Unde
et facilis est eversio
hujusmodi
aedificationis.
2, c. 10
and
for
an example of what they were able
to
bring out of a parable, see

1.
the explanations of the Lost Sheep,
and
the Lost
Piece of Money,
1, c. 16.
;
The
miracles were submitted by them to the same process of interpretation
see
1.
1, c. 7,
and
1.
2, c. 24.
*
tici
Be
Pudicilid,
c. 8,
9.
Among much
metals
;
else
which
is
interesting,
he says, Haere[His image

is
parabolas quo volunt trahunt, non quo debent, aptissimc excludunt.

in gold or rather
from the workers

in Fs.
liv.
called exclusores (see Augustine,

v.)
Enarr.
22) from excludere, to strike or stamp out (Du Cange,s.

is
This meaning
?
of the word excludere
wanting
in
Scheller's Bictionary .]
Quare
aptissinie
Quo-
niam
a primordio
secundum occasiones parabolarum,

videntur.
ipsas materias confinxerunt doc-
trinse.
Vacavit
scilicet illis solutis
a regula veritatis, ea conquirere atque componere,

too
quorum parabola
Thus
Be Prase. Haret.,
c.
8, Valentinus
non ad
materiam Scripturas sed materiam ad Scripturas, excogitavit.
OF PARABLES.
Thus
the apostacy of Satan and his
4X
after
drawing
him
a part of the host
of heaven, they found set forth by the parable of the Unjust Steward.
Satan was the chief steward over God's house, w^hom 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, though not testifying to evils at
all
so grave in the
devisers of
the scheme, nor leading altogether out of the region of Christian truth,
yet sufficiently injurious to the sober interpretation of the parables,
is
such a theory concerning thWm 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
it
then laying hold of the term, kingdom of God, and understanding

far too exclusive a sense, they are
in
determined
to find in
every one of the
parables a part of the history of that kingdom's progressive development

in
the world,
to the
remotest times.
They
Thus,
will not allow
any
to
be
merely
for exhortation, for reproof, for instruction in

to
righteousness, but
affirm all
be historico-prophetical.
to
let
one of them speak
for himself, in the
remarkable words of Krummacher,|

use a comparison, we
" The parables
of Jesus have not primarily a moral, but a politico- religious, or theocratic
purpose.
To
may
consider the kingdom of
God
ing
carried forward under his guidance, as the action, gradually unfolditself,
of an Epos, whose
first
germ lay prepared long beforehand

to
in the
Jewish economy of the Old Testament, but which through him

to unfold itself,
began
and will continue
do so
to the
end of time. The
name and
containing
superscription of- the
parables belong essentially to

its
The kingdom of God. The the Gospel of the kingdom, not merely as
Epos
is,
doctrine,
but
its
progressive development.
They
con-
nect themselves with certain fixed periods of that development, and, as soon as these periods are completed, lose themselves in the very com* Neander, Kirch. Gesch.,
the
v. 5.
p.
still,
1082.
They
dealt
more
perversely,
and
at
same time more
characteristically
with the parable of the Servant that owed the

:
ten thousand talents {Ihid, v. 5. p. 1122) reckons,

is
This servant too, with
whom
to
the king
Satan or the Demiurgus, his wife and children
whom
the king orders to be
sold, the first his
Sophia or intelligence, the second the angels subject
him.
God
pitied him,
and did not take from him his higher intelligence,

if
his subjects or his goods
he promising,
God would have
patience with him, to create so great a
number of
per-
men
as should supply the place of the fallen angels.
Therefore
God gave him

this will suffice.
mission 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

the
But
Not
Krummacher who
is
now,
or
was of late,
so popular in England, but his
father, himself the author of a
volume of very graceful original parables.
42
pletion
:
ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PARABLES

that
is,
considered as independent portions of the Epos, remain-
ing for us only in the image and external letter."

course, in the
He must mean,
of
same manner and degree as
all
other fulfilled prophecy
in the light of
such accomplished prophecy, he would say, they must

to the
henceforth be regarded.
Boyle gives some, though a very moderate countenance,

opinion, saying of the parables, "
that, besides the
same
Some,
if not
most, do, like those oysters
meat they
afford us,
contain pearls, not only include
excellent moralities, but comprise important prophecies ;" and having
adduced
tlie
taining such prophecies, he goes
Mustard Seed and the Wicked tlusbandmen as plainly conon, " I despair not to see unheeded
in
prophecies disclosed
others of them."*
Vitringa's Elucidation of the
Parables
-f
is
a practical application of this

is
scheme of
interpretation, and
one which certainly

of
it.
not calculated to give one a very favourable opinion
Asa
specimen, the servant owing the ten thousand talents, (Matt.

Pope,
or line of Popes, placed in highest trust in the
xviii. 23,) is 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
punishment
but being mercifully delivered from this fear of imminent destruction at

the time
of Charlemagne, so far from repenting and amending, on the
contrary,
of God, and
now more than ever oppressed and maltreated the true servants who therefore should be delivered over to an irreversible
gives a yet more marvellous explanation of the Merchant
this pearl of price
to all
doom.
He
seeking goodly pearls,
being the church of Geneva

the abortive pearls, that
is,
and the doctrine of Calvin opposed

all
to
the other reformed Churches.
Other examples
may
be found in
Cocceius
an
interpretation, for instance, of the
Ten
Virgins, after this

this
same
*
fashion.*
Deyling has an interesting essay on

Holy Scriptures
it
;
school of
nothing
On
the
the
Style of the
Fifth Objection.
There
is
new
however
in this
scheme,
belief.
for
I
is
evident from
many
passages, that Origen had very
much
same
would
refer particularly to
what he says on
the parable
to labour
of the Labourers in the Vineyard,
{Comm.
in jSIatth. xx.,)
where he seems
under the sense of some great undisclosed mystery concerning the future destinies of
the
kingdom of God, lying hidden

c.
"in that parable.
St.
Ambrose {Ajmlog.
of the Unjust Judge.
Alt.
David,
of the
57) gives a strange historico-prophetical interpretation of Nathan's parable

Hippolytus, (De Antichristo,
c. 57,)
Ewe Lamb: and
t Erkldrung der Farabolen. Latin, but originally in Dutch,
Being published, not

far less
I
like
most of his other works

it
in
it is
known, as indeed
deserves to be, than
his other oftentimes very valuable works.
have made use of a German translation,
Frankfort, 1717.
The volume
consists of
more than a thousand rather closely-printed
pages, and has wonderfully
little
grain to be
winnowed out from a most unreasonable
proportion of chaff.
t
Schol. in
Matth. xxv.
More
are to be found in Gitrtler's S'yst. Theol. Froph.;
PARABLES NOT L\ THE SCRIPTURES.

interpreters,
43
and passes a severe, though certainly not undeserved, conProphetical, no doubt,

the
demnation on them.*
for
many
of the parables are,
they declare
how
new element
of
life,
which the Lord was bring-
ing into men's hearts and into the world, would work
ences and
results of his doctrine
grow
to
a great tree
the future influ-
that the little mustard-seed
would
had
that the leaven
would continue working

so
till it
leavened the whole lump.
But they declare not
much
the facts as
insight
the laws of the kingdom, or the facts only so far as

into the laws, they
tical are
by giving
impart a knowledge of the

;
facts.
Historico-prophe-
only a few
as for instance, that of the

in
Wicked Husbandmen
which
which Boyle adduced,

of Christ
there
is
;
which there
is
a clear prophecy of the death
as that again of the Marriage of the King's Son, in
an equally clear announcement 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 have
arrived at the conclusion of the seven parables contained in
the 13th of St. Matthew.
CHAPTER
IV.
ON OTHER PARABLES BESIDES THOSE IN THE SCRIPTURES.

However
to
the most
perfect specimens of
this
form of composition,
the most perfect
those by which the comparative value of all other in the like kind are
be measured, are
to
be found in that Book which
is
of all books, yet they do not belong exclusively to
Jerome has making

of
all.
noted,
is
truth in all the East.
The parable, as among the favourite vehicles for conveying moral Our Lord took possession of it, honoured it by
it.
it his own, by using it as the vehicle for the very highest truth But there were parables before the parables which issued from
his lips.
It
seems
to
belong
to
our subject
to
say a
to,
little
concerning
his,
those,
which, though they did not give the pattern
yet preceded
as at pp. 542, 676.
Deusingius, Teelman, D'Outrein, Solomon
Van
Till,
may
be
named among
the other chief writers of this school.

V. 5, p. 3.31, seq.
* Ohss. Sac,
He
notes
how
the
same scheme
of interpi'etation
has been applied by the same school of interpreters to the miracles.
Of
this,
various
examples
may
be found in Lampe's
Commentary on
vi.)
St. John,
see, for instance,
on the
feeding of the five thousand.
(John
They form
the weakest part of a book
which
contains in other respects
much
that is admirable.
44
ON OTHER PARABLES BESIDES

less
concerning those also which were formed more or
immediately on
is,
the suggestion and in the imitation of his, on the Jewish, that

Christian.
and the
And
first
upon the Jewish parables.

denied, but against
all
Some indeed have

time.
testimony, that this method
of teaching by parables was current among
the
Jews before our Saviour's

lest
it
To
this
they had been mainly led by the fear

to
should de-
tract from his glory,
suppose that he had availed himself of a manlier
of teaching already in use.

often
Yet surely the anxiety which has been

is
shown, and of which

all
this
a specimeUj to cut off the

his
JiOrd's
is
teaching from
idle,
living connection with
age and country
very
and the suspicion with which parallels from the uninspired Jewish have been regarded, altogether misplaced.
It is
writino-s
the
same
anxiety which would cut off the Mosaic legislation and institutions altogether from Egypt ;* which cannot with honesty be done, and which,
in truth, there
is
be indeed the world-religion,

of light
:
no object whatever in attempting. For if Christianity dispersed rays it must gather into one all
elements of truth which are it must appropriate to itself all anywhere scattered abroad, not thus adopting what is alien, but rather claiming what is its own.f There cannot be a doubt that our blessed
Lord
so spake, as that his doctrine, according to

itself to his
its
outward form should

should
commend
countrymen.
it
;
There were inner obstacles enough

it
to their receivino-
of
need was
therefore that outwardly
it
be attractive.
Thus
he appealed
to
proverbs
in
common
use
among
to
them.
He
quoted the traditionary speeches of their elder Rabbis,
refute, to enlarge, or to correct them.
When
he found the theological
terms of
their schools capable of bearing the

laid
burden of the new truth
which he not deny

formed
also a
it
upon them, he willingly used them ;X and in using, did their old meaning, yet at the same time glorified and transHe used them, but all his words into something far higher.
all
being creative, and he making
things new, he breathed into them
new
spirit
of
life.
The
prayer, "
Thy kingdom come,"

it
formed
already a part of the Jewish liturgy, yet not the less was
* The attempt
ia
fails
new prayer
It
even when made by so able and learned a
man
as Witsius.
not from grounds such as he occupies in his JEgyptiaca, that books like Sfencer's
De Legibus Ilebraorum can

t In the words of
o'iKtia crwrpiiara,
t
be answered.
{Strom.,
tjcTrtiri)
1.
Clement
1, c. 13)
Awarh
fi
dh'ideia
awayayctv ra
Kav
if t>iv oXXoJaTrfjv
y^v.
There
is
2, p. 8^3,)
with the
an interesting Essay in this point of view by Schoettgen, (Har. Heb.,v. In the same way the whole title Christus Eabhinorum summus.
the world in
colouring of Ezekiel's visions, and the symbols which he uses, are Persian and Babylo-
nian throughout, they belong, that
is, to
which he
lived
and moved
yet
the distinction remains as wide as ever
between a Magian or Chaldaean soothsayer
and a prophet of the living God.
THOSE IN THE SCRIPTURES.
45
on the lips of all who had realized in any measure the idea of the kingdom, and what was signified by the coming of that kingdom, as " So, " Peace be unto you he first had enabled them to realize it.
!
was no doubt an ordinary

having how
salutation
among
the
Jews long
before, yet
upon
his
much deeper a significance, and one how lips who was our Peace, and who, first causing
to
altogether
new
us to enter our-
selves into the peace of God, enabled
us truly to wish peace, and to

also
it
speak peace,
our brethren.
In like
manner
is
not to be doubted
that a proselyte
was
in the
Jewish schools
entitled, " a
new
creature,"
and
his passing over to
Judaism was called " a new
birth ;"* yet
were
in his
it
these terms used, as far as
we can
see, to express a
change only
;
outward relations
that
his
kinsmen were
his
kinsmen no more
re-
mained
for
Christ and his apostles to appropriate
them
it
to the
higher
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

illustrating of doctrines
Nor
less
is
certain that the
was eminently in be said of them as of him,
by the help of parables, or briefer comparisons, use among the Jewish teachers,"}" so that it might also
that without a parable they taught nothing.
The very formulas with which their same as those we find in the Gospels
;
parables were introduced were the

for instance, the question, "
Where-
unto shall
liken
the
it
?"
is
of continual recurrence.
in
was
not in
newness of the forms, but
But what then ? it the newness of the spirit,
that the glory
and superior excellency of Christ's doctrine consisted.

not be displeased to see
As some may
are like,
I
what these Jewish parables
will quote, not, as

1
sometimes has been done, the worst, but

to
the best which
have had the fortune

answered, that
"
meet.
The
following
is
occa-
sioned by a question which has arisen, namely.
Why
It
the good so often
young would fall

die
It is
God
is
foresees that if they lived
they
into sin.
To what He
this
like?
is
like a
king who,
walking
in his
garden, saw some roses which were yet buds, breathing

thought, If these shed such sweetness while
an ineffable sweetness.
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
gathered them while yet tender and

I
young, and while they gave forth their sweetness,

* Schoettgen's Hor. Heh.,
t
might have de-
v. 1, pp. p.
328, 704.
Hillel
ViTRiNGA,
De Synagogd,
678, seq.
and Schammai were the most

;
illustrious teachers
after.
by parables before the time of our Saviour

tradition goes, the
R. Meir immediately
With
this last, as the
power of inventing parables nota-
bly declined.
This
is
not hard to understand.

forth
The
fig-tree of
the Jewish people
was withered, and could put
no
fruit
any more.
(Matt. xxi. 19.)
46

now
I
lighted myself with them, but
have no pleasure
in them.'
The
next year the king walked in his garden, and finding roaebuds scattering fragrance, he
commanded
his servants,
last
'
Gather them, that

did.' '^*
enjoy them, before they wither, as
year they
I may The next is
ingenious enough, though a notable specimen of Jewish self-righteousness

:
" A
man had
was
three friends
being
for
summoned
:
to
appear before
first,
;
the king, he
terrified,
and looked
an advocate
the
whom
he had counted the

replied that he
best, altogether
refused to go with him

to
another
would accompany him

for
the door of the
palace, but
could not speak
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 sumthe first, whom he most prized, before God, his Judge 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 dewhile the third, whom he had in least esliver him in the judgment good works, appear with him before the king and teem, the Law and
moned by death
his
But this is in a nobler strain ; deliver him from condemnation. "f " suggested by those words, " In thy light shall we see light."
it
is
As
man
travelling
by night kindled
lit,
his torch,
at
which, when
it
*
was
extin-
guished, he again
shall I
and again, but

in
length exclaimed,
till
How
long
weary myself
is
my way
I
better to wait
the sun arise, and

so the Israelites
when
the sun
shining
in
will
pursue
my
journey'
were oppressed
Egypt, but delivered by Moses and Aaron.
Again
they were subdued by the Babylonians, when Chananiah, Misael, and
Again they were subdued by the Grecians, At length the Romans when overcame them, when they cried to God, We are weary with the conAzariah delivered them.
Mattathias and his sons helped them.
'
tinual
alternation of oppression and
deliverance
we
is
ask no further
holy and blessed
that mortal
for ever.'
man may
shine upon us, but God,

a fine one of the fox,
"^
There
nets,
is
who who
seeing the fish in
great trouble, darting hither and thither, while the stream was being
drawn with
proposed
to
them
to leap
on dry land.
This
is
put in
a Rabbi's mouth, who,
when
the Grneco-Syrian kings were threatening
* Sciioettgen's Hor. Heb.,

t Schoettgen's Ilor. Ileh., as an advocate
v. 1, p.
v. 1, p.
682.
1129.
How
different is
this
view of the
v.
Law
with the Judge, from that given by our Lord, (Matt.

it
25, 26.)
who compares
to be worsted
!
to
an adversary dragging us before a tribunal where we are certain

like so
This parable,
much
;
else that is to be found in the Rabbini-
cal books, reappears in
sephat,
c.
13
many and among the
quarters
in the Eastern
traditional sayings of
Romance, Barlaam and JoMahomet. (See Von Hammer's
Fundgruben
t
d. Orients, v. 1. p.
315)
v. 2, p.
Scuoettgen's Hor. Heb.,
691.

with death
all
47
his friends to
who observed
say, "
yet,
if,
the law,
was counselled by
abandon
in
it.
He would
;
danger now, but
We, while we
to
like the fish in the stream, are indeed
in our element
inevitably
plain
but escape perish."* Again, there

is
continue in obedience to God,

the danger,
is
one of
we are we forsake that, then we much tenderness, to exSuch
why
a proselyte
dearer to the Lord than even a Levite.
proselyte
is
compared
to a
wild goat, which, brought up in the desert.
joins itself freely to the flock, and
which
is
cherished by the shepherd

its
with especial love
since, that his flock,
which from
youth he had
put forth in the morning and brought back at evening, should love him,
was nothing strange

affection.")"
but this
that the goat, brought
up
in deserts
and
mountains, should attach itself
to
him, demanded an especial return of

briefer ones,
ing the
title
urging collection
There are besides these a multitude of deservof similitudes rather than of parables. Thus there one, " a man brought of prayer,
is
spirit in
to this effect
If
a request to an earthly monarch, but instead of making

aside and talk with his neighbour, might not the
it,
were
to
turn
dis-
king be justly
pleased
? ":{:
In
another, the death

is
common
to all,
and the doom
after
death so different to each,

at a single gate,
likened to a king's retinue entering a city

it
but afterward lodged within
very differently, accord-
ing
to their several dignity.
There
is
a singular one to explain,
why
God
its
has not told which

II
command
it is
should have the greatest reward for

soul are partners
keeping.
In
another
shown how body and
in sin, and so will justly be partners in punishment. IF
These, with two or three more, which, bearing some resemblance
to
* Schoettgen's Hor. Heb., v. 1, p. 189.
+ Schoettgen's Hor. Heb., v. 1, p. 377.
This too on the resurrection

replied to a
is
good
said,
(CoccEius, Excerpt. Gem., p. 232)
R.
Ammin
Sadducee who
Numquid
jussit id
pulvis vivet
Rem
tibi
hac parabola explicabo.

et
servis suis palatium
in loco, qui
aquS
limo careret, extrui.
Rex quidam jusserat a Factum. Eo collapso,

se posse.
adsit,
resBdificari in
loco ubi utriusque erat copia.

:
Negant
Turn
ille
?
iratus,
I
Quum
abesset aqua et limus, potuistis

v. 1, p. 1, in
nunc quum utrumque
non possetis
Schoettgen's Hor. Heb.,

51, in Matth.
656.
The same comparison with
slight va-
riation occurs in
Chiysostom, {Horn.
Oziam,) and again with further modification
Ham.
II
Schoettgen's Hor. Heb.,

Ibid., V.
v. 1, p.
388.
l.p. 187
p.
If
CoccEius {Excerpt. Gem.,

est.
232)
et
Antoninus cum R. Jehuda sancto

se liberare possunt.
sic collo-
quutus aliquando
Corpus inquit
peccavit,
anima a judicio
Quomo-
do
Corpus
dicat,
Anima
sine sensu in sepulcro jacui.
laxata
sum nexu,
tibi
ecce volito
nam ex quo ilia a me discessit, ecce lapidis instar Anima autem dicat, Corpus peccavit, nam ex quo illius per aerem aviculse in morem. Ad ha;c Rabbi, Paraboclaudum
et
1am, iniquit,
dabo.
Rex
mortalis horto cuidam amoenissimo, in quo maturi frac-
tus essent, duos custodes apposuit,
caecum.
Claudus,
visis fructibus,
caecum
48
ox OTHER PARABLES BESIDES
Evangelical parables, will be noted in their due places, are the most
memorable which
parison,
I
have met.
will be
When
is
these last are brought into comis
think
it
acknowledged that the resemblance
one
lying merely on the surface, and

writers have given out.
great, as needed in
nothing so extraordinary, as some
supposed that
Some, indeed, have thought the similarity so some way or other to be accounted for, and have our Lord adopted those which he found in any way fitted
remodelling and improving them as they passed under
for his purpose,
his hands.
Others suppose that the Jewish parables are of later origin
than those in the Gospels, and that the Rabbis, while they searched the
Christian books for the purpose of ridiculing or gainsaying them, enriched
themselves with their
spoils,
borrowing sayings and narrations which
they afterwards used, concealing carefully the source from whence they
were derived.*
Lightfoot has a collection of such sayings under the
But neither of these suppositions seem necessary. title, Wit stolen
by the Jews out of the Gosjiel jf but neither here, nor in the parallels elsewhere adduced, is the resemblance so striking as to carry any persuasion
to
my
mind, of the necessity, or even the probability, of a com-
mon
origin.
The
hatred and scorn with which the Jews regarded the

to all foreign
to them,:]:
sacred books of the Christians, an hatred which extended

literature, but
which was
felt
with especial force in regard
makes
this last supposition
extremely improbable.
The resemblance,
external
life,
after all, is
merely such as must needs have found
place, or at least could with difficulty have been avoided,
when
the
same
and the same outward nature, were used as the
common
storehouse, from
alike by
all.
whence images,
it
illustrations,
and examples were drawn

to
Perhaps
will be as well at
once
consider one of these
Talmudical parables, frequently compared with one spoken by our It is one of the best of those which pretend to any similarity Lord.
with
his,
and has been sometimes likened

to the
to that latter part
of the Marriage
of the King's Son, which relates
wedding garment.
xii. 7,
it.'
"
have delivered what follows, on Eccl.

spirit shall
where
it is it
written,
The Rabbis The

'
return unto
uti in
God who gave

reciperet,
caeci
He
gave
to thee unspot-
admonuit, ipsum
rent.
humeros
claudus
quo
illos
deceiperet, et
illi
inter se devora-
Insedit
igilur
cervicibus,
et
decerptosque
fructus
absuniseiuut.
Aliquanto post tempore venit Dominus horti

sibi
de fructibus requisivit.
Cum
caecus,
ille ?
oculos non esse ut videret, et claudus, sibi pedes deesse, ut accederet.

jussisset
Quid
Quum
hunc
:
illius
humeris excipi, utrumque simul judicavit

indita,pariter
et plexit.
Consi-
militer faciei
Deus
anima coipoii
animam
et corpus judicabit.
* So Carpzow, Storr, Lightfoot, and Pfeiffer, {Theol. Jud. atque
Mohamm.,
th.
40-43
t Eruhhin, chap. 20.

t
Gfrorer's Urchri>itenlhum,v.
1, p.
115, seq.
THOSE
ted, see that
IN
THE SCRIPTURES.
to
49
It is
thou restore
it
unspotted
him again.
like a mortal
king,
who
distributed 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.
the wise returned
After a while, the king required his
garments again
but the foolish, soiled

the wise, and said,
and stained.
'
them white as they had received them Then the king was well pleased with
;
Let the vestments be laid up

;'
in the
wardrobe,
and
said,
let
'
these depart in peace
but he was angry with the foolish, and
Let the vestments be given

:'
cast into prison
so will the
Ivii.
as
it is
written, Isai.
to be washed, and those servants be Lord do with the bodies of the righteous, with their souls, 1 Sam. xxv. 29 ; but with
;
the bodies of the wicked, Isai. xlviii. 22

1
Ivii.
21
and with their
souls,
Sam. xxv. 29."* But with
the exception of a king appearing in each,
and the matter of 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 sunilarity
is
between
this parable
and that of
the Talents, as in each case there
the restoration of a deposit, and a
dealing with the servants according to their conduct in respect of that

deposit.
But
then,
how remote
a likeness
and how capricious ihe

to
to
whole
actual
The
distributing of
garments which were not
be worn, and
afterwards reclaiming them,

life ?"!
how
what
analogy has
this
any thing
in
different
from the probability that a nobleman, going
into a distant country, should distribute his goods to his servants,
and
returning,
in the
demand from them an
account.:}:
There
are no parables
is
apocryphal Gospels.
Indeed, where a moral element

117
altoge-
* Meuschen, N. T. ex Talm.
illust.,
see others, pp. Ill, 194, 195
and
more
in
Westein's N.
T., pp.
727, 765.
Those given by Otto,

a
a converted Jew,
who
afierwards relapsed
into Judaism, in
book
entitled
Gali Bazia, have been
tampered with by him
for the
purpose of making the resemblance between them and

close, else
the Evangelical parables
more
they would be remarkable indeed.
(Pfeif-
fer's Theol. Jud.,
th. 39.)
t This, with so
many
other of the rabbinical parables, sins almost against every
rule given as needful to be
observed in such an invented tale,
if it is
to
carry any
:
power of conviction with

isimilis narratio erit,
si
it,
by the author of the
treatise.
Ad
Heiennium,i- 9
;
Ver-
ut
mos,
ut opinio, ut natura postulat,
dicemus
si
spatia tem-
porum, personarum dignitates, consiliorum rationes, locorum opportunitates constabunt,

ne
refelli
possit, aut
temporis parum
fuisse,
aut causam
nuUam, aut locum idoneum
non
all
fuisse, aut
homines ipsos facere aut
pati
non
potuisse.
But how wonderfully

this
do
these requisites
t
meet
in the parables of the
New
Testament
Unger {De Farab.
Jes. Nat., p.
162) observes that he has gone into
com-
parison of the Evangelical
with
he Jewish parables,
Partim
.
ut
absterreremur a
solito rabbinicos locos doctrinte
Jesu
quodammodo
sequiparandi pruritu ac levitate,

.
interdum ad interpretationem juvandam parum
utili,
partim ut inde magis ag-
nosceremus parabolarum Jesu praestantiam.
50

it
ther wanting, as in these worthless forgeries,

that this, as every other form of
was only
to
be expected
communicating
Jewish parables.
spiritual truth, should
be absent from them.
This much
in regard of the
of the Christian Church there are not many, as far as
Among I am
the Fathers
aware,
who
have professedly constructed parables

mysteries.
for the setting forth of spiritual
Two
or three such parables are to be found in the third
book of the Shepherd of Hernias. deed parabolical, as

only
it
it
The whole
is,
of that third book
is in-
sets forth spiritual truths
under sensuous images,
does this chiefly in visions, that
parables for the eye rather

in the strictest sense
than for the ear.

the word
;
There
are,
however, parables
is, I
of
this for
example,* which
:
think, an
improved form of the
rabbinical parable last quoted

as thou hast received
it
:
" Restore to the
Lord the
spirit entire
for if
thou gavest
it
to
a fuller a garment which

it
was
'
entire,
and desiredst so
to receive
it ?
again, but the fuller restored
to thee rent,
I
wouldest thou receive
wouldest thou not say in anger,
delivered to thee
it
my
garment
entire,
wherefore hast thou torn
it
and
made
in
it,
useless
It is
now, on account of the rent which thou hast made

If thou then grievest for thy garment,
it
of no more service to me.'
and complainest because thou receivest

thou, will the
not entire again, how, thinkest
Lord deal with
thee,
who gave
it it
thee a perfect spirit, but

to its
which
Lord
?
spirit
thou hast marred, so that
can be of no more service
for
it
became useless when
was corrupted by thee."
There
are a good
writings of
many parables, regularly brought forward as such, in the Ephraem Syrus, but such of these as I am acquainted with,
:
are very far from felicitous
indeed they could scarcely be tamer than

a sort of
they are.*
Eadmer,
many
a disciple of Anselm, has preserved
basket of fragments from his sermons and his table-talk.

there are so
to the
Among
these
of his similitudes and illustrations as to give a
name
whole
collection.:}:
There are
not a few complete parables here,
* Simil. 9, 32., cf Simil. 5, 2.
t This
translation
:
is
the best that I
know, of which, however,
only judge in
its
Latin
Duo homines
proficiscebantur
ad quandain civitatem,
quae stadiis abevia locus,
rat triginta. in
Cilm auiem jam duo aut

et arbores erant
tria confecissent stadia, ohtulit se in
quo sylvae
umbrosae, fluentaque aquaruin, multaque ibidem delecista, alter

;
tatio.
Qui dum contemplarentur

locum
prajteribat
quideni ad urbem spectandam contendens,
instar cursoris
alter vero, ciim constitisset ut contenipiaretur, revellet extra
mansit.
Deinde cum prodire jam

ibidem
loci
iis
aiborum unibram, caloros
tiinuit,
atque
ita diutius
dum
remaneret, locique simul ainccnitate sese delectaret atque
occuparet, beslia ex
traxit in
quaj in sylva
commoranlur
neque
perrexit.
It is I
prodiit,
apprehensumque ipsum perneque forma arborum se
suum antrum:
S.
alter vero qui
iter neglexisset,
detineri passus esset, recia ad

X
urbem
Sec also ParcRnes., 21,28.
De
Anselmi Smilitudinibus.
I
published at the end of the Benedict, edit,

find a better than this,
of St. Anselm.
do not
know whether
can
upon the keep-
51
though none perhaps of that beauty which the works that come directly
from him might have led us
to expect.
Far
out,
I
better are those interspersed through the
Greek
religious
romance
of the seventh or eighth century, Barlaam and Josaphat, ascribed withbelieve,
any
sufficient grounds, to St.
John of Damascus, and often

justly admired,* yet
printed with his works.
They have been
more
than one of them

lier sources.
is
certainly not original, being easily traced
up
to ear-j-
very interesting one will be found in the note below,

all
ing of the heart with
diligence, of which, however, I

(c.
can quote no more than

:
is
necessary for giving an insight into the whole

est
Cor etenim nostrum simile molendino semper molenti, quod Dominus quidam cuidam servo suo custodiendum
41)
:
dedit
uerit,
prsecipiens ei ut
ipse vivat.
suam Verum illi

ibi
tanti^m
annonam
in eo molat, et ex
si
servo quidam inimicatur, qui

projicit,
quando
eodem quod molillud vacuum

Servus igitur
in illo
invenerit, aut tinat

ille
;
arenam
statim
;
quae illud dissipat
aut picam, quae conglu-
aut aliquid quod foedat
aut paleam quae tantimi illud occupat.

custodierit,
si
molendinum suum bene
Dominique
sui
tantum annonam
moluerit, et
Domino suo
serv'it,
sibique ipsi victum acquirit.
Hoc
itaque
molendinum
semper aliquid molens cor
est
humanum,
assidue aliquid cogitans.

p.
Cf. c. 42, 46.
* See DuNLOP's History of Fiction, London, 1845,

t
40, seq.
et institute
Urbem quandam magnam

omnino rudem
et
exstitisse accepi, in
qua cives hoc in more
positum habebant, ut peregrinum quendam et ignotum virum,ac legum consuetudinum

civitatis
ignarum acciperent, eumque

vellet, faceret.
sibi ipsis
regem
constituerent,
penes quern per unius anni curriculum rerum omnium potestas

sine ullo
esset,
ille
quique libere et
impedimento quicquid
Post autem,dum
omni prorsus cura

sibi reg-
vacuus degeret, atque
in luxu et deliciis sine ullo
metu
versaretur,
perpetuumque
num
dam
fore existimaret, repente adversus
eum
insurgentes, regiamque ipsi vestem detra-
hentes, ac
et
nudum
per toiam urbem tanquam in triumphum agentes, in
magnam
quan-
longe remotam insulam
eum
relegabant, in qui nee victu nee indumentis supscilicet
petentibus,
fame ac nuditate miserrime premebatur, voluptate
atque animi
hilaritate, quae prseter
spem
ipsi
concessa fuerat, in maerorem rursus praeter spem omContig'it ergo ut pro antique
nem
et
expectationem commutata.
civium illorum more
atque institute vir quidam
magno
ingenii
acumine
prseditus ad
regnum
ascisceretur.
Qui statim
subita ea felicitate, quae ipsi obtigerat,haudquaquam praeceps abreptus, nee
eorum
eret.
qui ante se regiam dignitatem obtinuerant, misereque ejecti fuerant, incuriam
imitatus,
animo anxio
et solicito id agitabat,
quonam pacto
rebus suis optime consul-
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, intellexit
Cixm
igitur
hoc cognovisset,
illud et alielibe-
futurumque propediem,ut ad illam insulam ablegaretur, atque adventitium
num regnum
rum usum
praemisit.
aliis relinqueret, patefactis
thesauris suis,
quorum tunc promptum ac
habebat, aurique atque argenti ac preciosorum lapidum ingenti mole famulis

tradita,
quibusdam quos fidissimos habebat,
ad earn insulam, ad quam abducendus
erat,
Vertente autem anno cives commotii seditione
nudum eum quemadmodCira

et brevis
superiores reges, in exilium miserunt.

reges, gravissima
Ac
caeteri
quidem amentes,
temporis
fame laborabant
ille
contra qui opes suas praemiserat, in perpetua
rerum copia vitam ducens, atque
infinita voluptate fruens,
perfidorum ac sceleratose praedica-
rum civium metu prorsus abjecto, bat. Compare 1 Tim. vi. 19.
sapientissimi consilii sui
nomine beatum
52

Those which are
entitled parables in the writings of St.
Bernard,*
which, whether they be his or no, have
much
of beauty and instruction
in them, are rather allegories than parables,
be considered.
But
if
parables,
and so do not claim here to which are professedly such, are not of
frequent occurrence in the works of the early

bolical element
is,
Church
writers, the para-
notwithstanding, very predominant in their teaching.
This was only

for instance, of
to
be expected, especially in their homilies, which are
popular in the truest and best sense of the word.
What
boundless stores,
happy
illustration,
which might with the greatest ease

St. inis
be thrown into the forms of parables, are laid up in the writings of

Augustine.
One
is
only perplexed amid the endless variety what

this
stances to select: but
speaking of the
we may take Son of God and the

is
one as an example.
He
sinner in the
;
same world, and ap" But," he proceeds,

in his
pearing under the same conditions of humanity
"how
great a difference there

visitor that
between the prisoner

him.
dungeon
and the
has come
:
to see
They
are both within the
walls of the dungeon
one who did not know might suppose them under

is
equal restraint, but one
the compassionate visitor

is
who can
for his
use his free-
dom when he
great
is
will, the other
fast
bound there
offences.
the difference between Christ, the compassionate visitor of
So man,
re-
and
man
himself, the criminal in bondage for his offences. "f
Or
buking them that dare in their ignorance
"If you entered the workshop of a blacksmith, you would not dare to find fault with his bellows, anvils, hammers. If you had not the skill of a workman, but the consideration of a man, It is not without cause the bellows are placed what would you say ? 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
ments of providence
:
to find fault
with the arrange-
'
to
find fault with
God
in the
world ?":}: Chrysostom,
too, is
very rich
in such similitudes, which need nothing to be parables, except that they should be presented for such ; as for instance, when speaking of
the exaltation of outward nature, the redemption of the creature, which " To shall accompany the manifestation of the* sons of God, he says,
what
child,
is
the creation like
It is
like a nurse that has brought
up a royal
and when he ascends his paternal throne, she too rejoices with him, But the field here opening before us and is partaker of the benefit."
* In the Benedictine edition, v. 1, p. 1251, seq.
+ In Ep.
t
Joh., Tract. 2.
c.xlviii.
Enarr. in Ps.
Horn, in Eom.
He
has something perhaps more nearly approaching in
ts
form
to a parable than either of these,

viii.
Enarr. in Ps.
ciii.
26.
19.

is too
53
all
wide
to enter
on.'*'
It is
of parables strictly so called, and not
of these,f but of such ofily as are found in the

it is
New
Testament, that
my
wish
to
speak
and these
would now proceed severally and
in order to consider.
*
however, deny myself the pleasure of transcribing the following para1.
I will not,
ble from
H. de Sto. Victore (De Sacram.,
2, pars 14, c. 8)
Pater quidam contuma-
cem
in
filium quasi
cum magno
furore expulit, ut ita afflictus humiliari disceret.

consilii
Sed
illo
contumaciasua persistente.quadam secreta dispensatione
a patre mater mitti-
tur, ut
non quasi
a patre missa,sed quasi
materna per
se pietate ducta veniens muliebri

flectat,
lenitate obstinatum demulceat,
contumacem ad humilitalem
vehementer patrem
suscepturam ashere he
iratum nuntiet, se tamen inlerventuram spondeat, consilium salutis suggerat, .... non
nisi
magnis precibus patrem
placari posse dicat
causam tamen
rei se
serat, et
ad bonam finem rem
omnem
se
perducturam promittat.
that have at
The mother
presently explains as divine Grace.
Readers
;
hand Poiret's remarkable
work, CEconomi Divina,

long to quote, but
,
may
find a parable, (v. 2, p. 554.)
is
worthy a reference
and another
in
1. 5, c. 9, 26, which is too Salmeron's i'erm. in Parah.
Evang p. 300. t One Persian, however,
I will
quote for
its
deep significance.
take
it
from Des-
LONGCHAMPs' Fables Indiennes,
p. G4.
ner in which frivolous and sensual
The Persian moralist is speaking of the manpleasures cause men to forget all the deeper interests
le
of
their spiritual being:
On
ne peut mieux assimiler

est
genre humain qu'a un

il
homme
qui, fuyant
un elephant furieux,
;
descendu dans un
puits,
s'est
accroche a deux rachose qui forme
meaux
une
qui en couvrent I'orifice
et ses pieds se sont poses sur quelque
saillie
dans
I'interieur
;
du merae puits: ce sont quatre serpens qui sortent leurs tetes

Ses regards se portent vers
hors de leur repaires
il
apperqoit au fond du puits, un dragon qui gueule ouverte n'atle

11
tend que I'instant de sa chAte pour
devorer.
les
deux
rameaux auquels
c'est
il
est suspendu, et
voit a leur naissance
deux
rats, I'un noir, I'autre
blanc, qui ne cessent de les ronger.
Un
autre objet cependant se presente a sa vue

il
une ruche remplie de mouches a miel,

lui fait
se
met
manger de
est
leur miel, et le plaisir
qu'ily trouve
oublier les serpens sur lesquels reposent ses pieds, les rats qui ronil
gent les rameaux auxquels

stant, de devenir la proie
est
suspendu, et
le
danger dont
!e
il
menace
a chaque inle
du dragon qui guette

les quatre
moment
de sa chiite pour
devorer.
Son etourderie
renipli de
et son illusion
et
ne cessent qu'avec son existence.

;
Ce
puits c'est le
monde
le
dangers
de miseres
serpens ce sont les quatres humeurs dont
melange forme notre corps, mais

tant de poisons mortels
;
qui, lorsque leur equilibre est
rompu, deviennent aule
ces deux rats, I'un noir, I'autre blanc, ce sont

;
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 ou nous devons marcher.

found
This
is
again, with
some
in p.
slight alterations, to be
among
the specimens of the great mystical poet of
Persia, Dschelaleddin, given by
Von Hammer
{Gesch. d. scliOn. Redek. Fers.,
p. 183,)
(v. 2.
Barlaam and Josaphat,

364) there
is
c.
12,
and elsewhere.
In S. de Sacy's Chrest. Arabe
a parable by an Arabian author which bears
ticularly at
its
opening, to that of the talents
and
in
some resemblance, parT^luck's BUithensammlung

;
aus
d.
Morgenl. Myst., there are several parables from the mystical poets of Persia
for instance, a beautiful one, p. 105.
PARABLE
I.
THE SOWER.
Matt.
xiii.
3-8, and 18-23
Mark
iv.
4-8, and 14-21
Luke
It is
viii.
5-8, and 11-15.
evidently the purpose
of St.
Matthew
to present to his readers
the parables recorded in the thirteenth chapter of his Gospel as the first
which the Lord spoke

cated
with this of the Sower he
commenced a manner
is
of teaching which he had not hitherto used.
This
sufficiently indi-
by the question which the
disciples asked, "
Why
speakest thou
unto them in parables ?" (ver. 10,) and the answer which our Lord gave,
(ver. 11-17,) in
and declares the purpose
which he justifies his use of this method of teaching, which he had in adopting it and no less so,
;
when he seems
'
to
consider this parable as the fundamental one, on the
fright understanding of which, would depend their comprehension of
which were
ye know
sion on
all
to follow
" Know
all
ye not
iv,
this parable
and how then will

the
first
parables ?"
(Mark
13.)
which he brought
forth these things
And as this was new out of his

them
in the
occa-
treasure, (see
forth with the
ver. 22,) so
was
it
the occasion on which he brought
largest hand.
We
have not anywhere
else
Gospels so rich a
"roup of parables assembled together, so
upon a single thread.

that
'
many and so The only passage that will
costly pearls strung
bear comparison
is
chapters xv. and xvi. of St. Luke, where there are recorded five parables
were
all
apparently spoken on the same occasion.
The seven
that
first
are here recorded divide themselves into two smaller groups,

four being spoken to the multitude while he taught
the
the
three
last,
as
it
them out of the ship, would seem, on the same day, in the narrower
circle of his disciples at his
own home.
let
Before proceeding
to
consider the parables themselves,
us seek to
realize to ourselves, aud to picture vividly to our
minds the aspect which

Mat-
the outward nature wotc, and
what the scenery was with which our were surrounded.

St.
blessed
Lord and the
listening multitudes
thew
tells
us that " Jesus went out from the house," probably at Caper-
THE SOWER.
naum, which was the
close
that
city
55
after his
where he commonly dwelt
open min-
istry began, (Matt, iv. 13,) " his
own
city," (Matt. ix. 1,) and

sat
which was
in his
in the
by the sea-shore,* and going out he "
down by
the sea-side,"
is,
by the lake of Genesareth, the scene of so
ministry.
Gospels.
This lake (now Bahr Tabaria,) goes It is often called simply " the sea," (Mark
many incidents by many names

iv. 1,)
or
"the
Sea of Galilee," (Matt. xv. 29, John vi. 1,) or "the sea of Tiberias," (John xxi. 1,) though indeed it was an inland lake of no very
great extent, being but about sixteen miles in length, and
no more
belov-
than six in breadth.

not for
its
But
it
might well claim regard
for its beauty, if

it
extent
the Jewish writers
would have
it
that
was
ed of God above
all
the waters of Canaan, and indeed almost all ancient

it,
authors that have mentioned
as well as modei'n travellers, speak in

fertility
glowing terms of the beauty and rich

times
its
of
its
banks.
Hence someinterpret " the
name Genesareth has been
derived,
which some
garden of riches, "f though the derivation, I believe, is insecure. And even now, when the land is crushed under the rod of Turkish misrule,
many
which
traces of
its
its
former beauty remain,
many
evidences of the
fertility
shores will again assume in the day which assuredly cannot be

off,
very far
when
that rod shall be lightened
from them.
It is
true that
the olive-gardens and vineyards,

tic hills
which once crowned the high and romanfound in
with which
it
is
bounded on the east and the west, have disapstill
peared
rich
but the citron, the orange, and the date-tree,- are

;
abundance
and
in the
higher regions, the products of a more tem;
perate zone meet together with these

still
while lower down,

its
its
banks are
as of old,
covered with aromatic shrubs, and

to drink,
waters are
cool, clear,
fine
still,
sweet and wholesome

to the
and always
and transparent
very bottom, and as gently breaking on the

its
white sand with

the feet of the
which
of
shores are strewn as they did of old,
when
Son
God
*
trod those sands, or
walked upon those waters.*

it
On
the edge of
T))i/ 7rapa0aXa(7ai'ai/,
probably SO called to distinguish
from another Capernaum on
the brook Kishon. t Jerome {De Nornin. Heh.)

X
makes Gennesar
= hortus principium.
is
Josephus {Bell. Jud.,

its
3. 10,
1) rises into high poetical animation while he
de-
scribing
attractions
and
in Roiir's Palestinn, (termed
by Goethe, a glorious book,)
p. 67, there is a singularly beautiful description of this lake

try.
and the neighbouring coun-
See also Lightfoot's Chorograjih. Century,
c.
70, 79, and
Meuschen, Nov.
Test, ex Talm. illust., p. 151.

far less enthusiastic account.
Yet Robinson
He
253) gives a speaks indeed of the lake as a " beautiful sheet of

{Bibl. Researches, v. 3, p.
limpid water in a deeply depressed basin
almost unbroken heights,"

the middle
(p.
312,)
summer when
his
;" but the form of the hills, " regular and was to his eye " rounded and tame :" and as it was visit was made, the verdure of the spring had already
disappeared, and he complains of nakedness in the general aspect of the scenery.
56
this beautiful
THE SOWER.
lake the multitude were assembled, in such numbers, that
v. 1,)
probably, as on another occasion, (Luke
they pressed upon the
Lord, so that he found
it
convenient
to enter into a ship;

it,
little
from the shore, he taught them from
and putting off speaking " many things

like so
unto them in parables."

First in order
others, on one
lifted up,
it
is
the parable of the Sower.
It rests,
of the
common
familiar doings of daily
life.
many The Lord
may
be, his eyes,
and saw
at
no great distance an husband-
man
scattering his seed in the furrows.
As it
belongs to the essentially
popular nature of the Gospels, that parables should be found in them

rather than in the Epistles, where indeed they never appear, so
to the
it
belongs
popular character of the parable, that
it
should thus rest upon the
familiar doings of
common life,
the matters which

"
occupy
The
talk in the hourly
Man
Of
holds with week-day

;"
man
walk
the world's business
while
at the
same time
the Lord, using these to set forth eternal and spir-
itual truths, ennobles
ihem, showing, as he does, how they continually

"
reveal and set forth the deepest mysteries of his kingdom.
sower
went forth
to sow,''
what
a dignity and significance have
these
few
all
words, used in the sense in which the Lord here uses them, given in
after-times to the toils of the
husbandman
in the furrow.
to
The comparison
sown,
is
of the relations of the teacher and the taught

soil,
those
between the sower and the

of nature and of
and of the truth communicated
to the
seed
one so deeply grounded in the truest analogies between the worlds

spirit, that
we must
not
wonder
i.
to find
;
it
of frequent reiii.
currence, not merely in Scripture (I Pet.

the works of
all
23
John
9); but in
the wiser heathens,* of all
who have
realized in
spirit
any mea-
sure what teaching means, and what sort of influence the
of one
man
ought
to
seek to exercise on the spirits of his fellows, communicating to
them
the
living
is
and expanding
such, while
all
truths.
While
all
teaching that
is
worthy
name
words, even of men, that are really words are
as seeds, with a power to take root in the minds and hearts of those that
* Grotius has here
a particularly rich collection of parallel passages from Greek

ii.
and Latin writers

5),
he or others have adduced such from Aristotle, Cicero (Tusc.
Plutarch, Quintilian, Philo, and

to repeat their quotations.
:
many more
but
it
would not be worth while

this
merely
do not observe that any have
one from Senevenit.
ca {Ep. 73)
Deus ad homines
venit, ini6 (quod propius est) in
homines
Semi-
na
in corporibus
humanis disperse
sunt, quae
si
:
bonus cultor excipit, similia origini prosi
deunt, et paria his ex quibus orta sunt surgunt

i'is
malus, non aliter
qudm humus
ster-
ac palustris necat, ac deinde creat purgamcnta pro frugibus.
THE SOWER.
hear them, contain germs
selves ;* in a
In
57
by degrees develop themthe Seminal
them
that only
much higher
sense must this be true of the words, or rather
of the
Word
of God, which he spake
who was himself

all to
Word
which he communicated. f
Best right of
the
title
of seed has that
Word, which exercises

which
it
not merely
a partial working on the hearts in
is
received, but
wholly transforms and
renews them,
that
kingdom of God, and of which the effects endure for ever. I cannot doubt that the Lord intended to set himself forth as the chief sower of the seed, (not, of course, to
are born
into
Word by which men
anew
the
the exclusion of the apostles and their successors,) that here, as well as
in the next parable,
he that soweth the good seed
is
the
Son of man
and
this,
even though he nowhere in the three interpretations of the

Indeed,
it
present one announces himself as such.^
is difficult to
see
how we can
meaning
into the
stop
short of him,
when we
ivent
to
are seeking to give the full

to
to the
words, "
sower
forth
;
soto."^
His entrance
world was a going forth

first
sow
the
;
word of the kingdom,

the hearts of
which word he
soil
;
proclaimed, was his seed

to
others only were able

And when
that
is,
men
;
his
sow because he had sown
first
they
did but carry on the

**
work which he had auspicated and begun.

it
he sotoed, some seeds fell hy the 7oay side, [and

viii. 5)],
teas
trodden down
(Luke
fell
it
and
the fowls
came and devoured them up."
Some,
on the hard footpath, or road, where the glebe
was
not broken, and so
could not sink down in the earth, but lay exposed

of passers by,
in the
till
on the surface
prey
to the feet
at length
it
became an easy
in large
to the birds,
such as
East are described as following
which These words are explained by Christ himself; for of this parable we have an authentic interpretation, one that has come from and which is important, as has been observed, not merely his own lips
flocks the
to gather up, if they can,
husbandman,
the seed-corn
he has scattered.
Thus Shakspeare,
of a
man
of thoughtful
wisdom
" His piausive words
He scattered not in To grow there and

t
ears, but grafted

to bear."
them
Salmeron very beautifully (Senn.
in
Par. Evang.,
p.
30)
Quemadrnodiim
Evangelium
Christus Medicus est et medicina, Sacerdos et hostia,

lator et lex, Janitor et ostium, ita
Redemptor
et redeniptio, Legis-
Sator et semen.
Nee enim
est aliud
ipsum,
quam
Christus incarnatus, natus, praedicans, moriens, resurgens, mittens Spiritum

illarnque sanclificans et gubernans.
Sanctum, congregans Ecclesiam,

t
See, however, the arguments adduced to the contrary by Mr. Greswell (Exp. of
the Par., v. 5, part. 2, p. 238).
Salmeron {Serm. in Parab.,
p.
29)
Dicitur exire per operationem Incarnationis,

soli et frigori vesteni
qua indutus processit tanquam agricola aptam pluviae,

ciJm tamen
assumens,
Rex
esset.
58
in its bearings
THE SOWER.
on the parable
itself,
as enabling us to
feel that
we
are
treading on sure ground, but also as giving us a key to the explanation
of other parables, instructing us
how
:
far
we may
safely go in the appli-
cation of their minor circumstances
these words are thus explained:

the
"
When
any
one.
heareth the
not, then cometh the xoicked one,
word of and
kingdom and understandeih
it
catcheth atvay that which
was soion
in
his heart."
St.
Luke
brings
out Satan yet more distinctly as the
adversary and hinderer of the kingdom of God, (of which there will be fuller opportunity of speaking in the following parable,) by adding the
reason
why
he snatches the word away,
"
?est
they should believe
and
Matthew alone records, " and un. be saved.'' are very important for the comprehending of what it not" derstandelh this first state of mind and heart is, in which the word of God is unpro-
The words which
St.
ductive of any, even transitory, effect.
The man understands
it
not
he does not recognize himself as standing in any relation to the word which he hears, or to the kingdom of grace which that word proclaims.
speaks of
All that speaks of man's connection with a higher invisible world, all that sin, of redemption, of holiness, is unintelligible to him, and
wholly without significance.

has brought himself
to
to
it
;
But how has he come
to
this state ?
He
road
he has exposed his heart as a

till it
common
every
*
evil influence of the world,

till
has become hard as a pave-
ment
he has laid
;
waste the very
soil in
which the word of God

it
should have taken root
and hejias not submitted

it
;
to the
ploughshare
it
of the law, which would have broken
which,
if
he had suffered
to
do the work which God appointed

paring that
soil to
it
to do,
would have gone
before, prehis
receive the seed of the Gospel.
But what renders

soil,
case the more hopeless, and takes
away even
a possibility of the word

there
is
germinating there
also
is,
that besides
the evil condition of the
One watching to take advantage of that evil condition, to use every weapon that man puts into his hands, against man's salvation and he,
;
lest
by
possibility
such an hearer might 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, " immediately takeih away the
word
that
was sown
in their hearts."
And
the
Lord concludes,
" This
is he that received seed by the
way
side."
first,
Other of the seed, which the sower scattered, appeared to have at For we read, but in the end had not truly any better success.
not
"
Some fell upon stony places, where they had
much
earth ;
and forth-
* H. de Sto Victore (Annott. in Matth.)
Via
est
:
cor frequenti
malaium
cogita-
tionem transitu attritum

tioriB vitae
et arefactum.
Corn, a Lap.
Via
est trita secularis et liceu-
consuetude.
THE SOWER.
with they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth, and
59
when
the
sun was up,* they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away." The " stony places " here are to be explained by the "rock " in St. Luke, and it is important, for the right understanding of
the parable, that the words in St. Matthew, or rather in our translation
of them, (for " rocky places,"
would have
as indeed
the
Rhemish version has
it,
avoided the possibility of any mistake,) do not lead us,
astray. A soil mingled with stones is not meant ; for these, however numerous or large, would not certainly hinder the roots from striking deeply downward, as those roots, with the instinct which they possess, would feel and find their way, penetrating between the interstices of the stones, and would so reach the moisture below. But what is meant is ground, where a thin superficial coating of mould covered the surface of
a rock, which stretched below
it
and presented an impassable
barrier,
rendering
it
wholly impossible that the roots should penetrate beyond a
certain depth, or
draw up any supplies of nourishment from beneath.

therefore the plant the
While
it
the seed had not fallen into deep earth,

;
sooner appeared above the surface
and while the rock below hindered

put forth
its
from striking deeply downward,

It
it
energies the more lux-
uriantly in the stalk.

in that
sprung up without delay, but was not rooted

it
deep moist
soil
which would have enabled
to resist the
scorch-
ing heat of the sun, and being smitten by that, withered and died.
Concerning the signification of this part of the parable we learn, " They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the jvord
with joy ; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time
of temptation fall away." Though the issue is the same in this case as in the last, the promise is very different ; so far from the heart of this
manner of hearer appearing irreceptive of the truth, the good news of the kingdom is received at once, and with gladness.:}: But alas 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

* 'AvaTtWtiv once occurs transitively in the
iii.
New
iv.
Testament, Matt.
v.
45
so
Gen.
18, Isai. xlv. 8 (lxx).

stars.
It is
;
especially used, as in this passage, of the rising of the

;
sun or
Num.
xxiv. 17
Isai. Ix. 1
Mai.
2
;
but also of the springing up of

xvii. 6
;
plants from
iâvirtiKt, in
the earth.
Gen.
xix.
25
Isai. xltv.
Ezek.
Ps. xci. 7
and
so,
this present
parable.
In either sense the

;
title
dvaroM belongs
to Christ,
and has been applied to him in both as he is The Branch LXX.), and as he is the Day-spring (Luke i. 78).
t Bengel
:
('AvaroXi;, Zech. vi. 12,
Non
:
innuunter lapides sparsim in agro jacentes, sed petra sive saxum
continuum, sub
X
terras superficie tenui.
Cocceius
Statim
Isetari
est
malum signum,
quia non potest non verbum Dei,

sui, aywviav, angustias,
si
rectc percipiatur, in
homine operari displicentiam
cor con-
tritum, spiritum fractum,
famem
ac sitim, denique luctum, ut Servator docuit.
Matt.
v.
60
THE SOWER.
and hazards and sacrifices are taken
from an overlooking and leaving out of
after all the counterbalancing costs

into account, but a joy arising
calculation those costs and hazards
which circumstance
fatally differ-
ences the joy of

sure, (Matt.
xiii.
this class
of hearers from that of the finder of the treafor the
44,)
who
joy thereof, went and sold all that he
had, that he might purchase the

is,
field
all
which contained the treasure

and
state of
all
that
was
willing to deny himself
things,
to suffer all things, that
he might win Christ.
We
have rather here a
mind not
stub-
bornly repelling the truth, but wofuUy lacking in
deeper earnestness,
such as that of the great multitudes that went with Jesus, not considering what his discipleship involved,
those multitudes
This
is
to
whom
he turned
and
told
at large,
and
in the strongest
language, what the conditions of
that discipleship were,
(Luke
xiv. 25-33,) exhorting
them beforehand
in Christianity
that they should count the cost.
exactly what the hearer here
described has not done

as
it
whatever was
fair
and beautiful
first
presents
itself,
had attracted him

its
its
;
sweet and comfortable

but not
its
promises,* the moral loveliness of

the deepest needs of the
doctrines
answer
to
human
heart; as neither
when he
to
received the
word with gladness, had he contemplated the having

in his
warfare with sin and Satan and the world.
" So hath he
endure hardness
not root
in himself, but
durethfor a while, for when tribulation or persecution aris-
eth becaxise of the word, by
the last case, that Satan can
and by he is offended." It is not here, as in merely 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 tho present case are outward or inward

to the
trials,
these
being compared
rally the light
burning heat of the sun.f
It
is
true that gene,
and warmth of the sun are used
to set forth the genial

iv.
;
and
comfortable workings of God's grace, as eminently Mai.
2; but not
Isai. xlix.
always, for see, beside the passage before us, Ps. cxxi. 6
10
Rev.
vii.
16.
As
that
heat,
its
had the plant been rooted deeply

its
enough, would have furthered

ling
it
growth, and hastened

so these tribulations
ripening,
fit-
for the sickle
and the barn
would have
fur-
thered the growth in grace of the true Christian, and ripened him for
heaven.
earth,
But as the heat scorches the blade which has no deepness of

afflic-
and has sprung up on a shallow ground, so the troubles and

Ilia
Bede
sunt praecordia quae dulcedine tantfim auditi sermonis ac promissis

delectantur.
caelestibus ad
horam
t It
was with
to
the rising of the sun, that the KaOaiov, the hot desert wind,
all
began
to.
commonly
blow, the deadly efiects of which on
vegetation are often alluded
(Jon. iv. 8:
Jam.
i.
11.)
Plants thus smitten with the heat are called torrefacta,
THE SOWER.
tions
61
faith,
which would have strengthened a true

to fail.*
cause a
faith
which
was merely temporary

sake arrive he
to
is
When
these afflictions for the word's
offended, as though
him
:f
for
then are the times of
sifting,:}:
some strange thing had happened and of winnowing and then

;
too every one that has no root, or as St.

himself, no
Matthew describes
it,
no root in
inward
root, falls
away.
having
is
The
havinj; that inward root here answers to the having a foundation

vii.
on the rock, Matt.

(Matt. XXV. 4.)
ture.
25,
to the
oil
in the vessels elsewhere.
And
iii.
the image itself

;
not an unfrequent one in Scripxvii. 8

;
(Ephes.
17
Col.
ii.
Jer.
Hos.
ix. 16.)
It
has
a peculiar fitness and beauty,
for as the roots of a tree are out of sight,
yet from them

life
it
derives
its
firmness and stability, so upon the hidden
of the Christian, that
life
which
is
out of the sight of other men, his

it is
firmness and stability depend

the nourishment
is
and as
to the
through the hidden roots that
drawn up
life,
stem and branches, and the leaf

fruit,
continues green, and the tree does not cease from bearing
in the
even so
Christian's hidden
that life
which "
is
hid in Christ with
God." lie the sources of his strength and of his spiritual prosperity. Such a root in himself had Peter, who, when many others were offended and drew back, exclaimed, " To whom shall we go ? thou hast the
words of eternal
his root, causing
life."
(John
vi.
life
68.)
This
faith that Christ
and no
other had the words of eternal
and blessedness, was what constituted
him
to stand firm
when
so
many
fell
away.
better
So again
and an enconcerning
when
the
Hebrew
in
Christians took joyfully the spoiling of their goods,

in
knowing
their
themselves that they had "

x. 34,) this
heaven a
during substance," (Heb.
knowledge,
this faith
unseen inheritance, was the

loss,
take that
done.
root which enabled them joyfully to draw back unto perdition, as so many had Compare 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18, where again the faith in the unseen
and not
to
* Augustine
tribulations will
is
particularly rich in striking sayings
on the
different effects
faith,
which
have on those that are rooted and grounded in the
and those
affliction
:
that are otherwise.

Ibi est
Thus {Enarr.
palea,
in
ibi
in Ps. xxi.)
speaking of the furnace of

Ignis
ille
aurum,
ibi est
ignis in angusto operatur.

vertit,
non
the
est diversus,
et diversa agit,
paleam
cinerem
auro sordes
1.
tollit.
See
for
same image
Chrysostom,
t See Job
\
Ad
Pop. Antioch., Horn. 4,

11, 12,
viii.
and Umbreit's Note.
The very word

upon
" tribulation" with which
we have
rendered the OXîpn of the
original, rests
this
image
tribulatio
from tribulum, the threshing-roller, and thus
used to signify those
afflictive
processes by which in the moral discipline of
men God
separates their good from their evil, their wheat from their chaff.
It is
with allusion to
Paevfjpiôi,
1.
this
passage no doubt that
men
of faith are called in the
Greek Fathers,
nohfpi^m.
Compare with
this division of the parable, the
Shepherd of Hernias,
3, sim. 9, c. 21.
62
eternal things
is
THE SOWER.
the root, which, as St. Paul declares, enables
affliction light,
It
him
to
count the present
and
to
endure
to the
other hand, lacked that root.
might
at first sight
Demas, on the seem as if he would

end.
be more correctly ranged under the third class of hearers ; since he forsook Paul, " having loved this present world." But when we examine
more closely what was Paul's condition
at
Rome
at the
moment when
trial
Demas
danger
sake.*
left
;
him,
we
it
find
it
to
have been one of great outward

that the
and
so that
would seem more probable
immediate causefor the
of his so going back, vvas the tribulation which
came
'^
word's
But
thorns,
thirdly
of
fell
the seed
which the sower

choked
cast,
it,^'
some fell mnong

no fruit."
full
and
the
thorns sprung up and
or as Wiclif has,
It is
" strangled it,"f so that, as St.

not that this seed
so
Mark adds, " it yielded much among thorns that were
grown, as in
ground where the
roots of these had not been carefully extirpated, in ground which had not been thoroughly purged and cleansed ; otherwise
it
could not be said in the words of Luke, " that the thorns sprang up
it."
with
They grew
together
air
only the thorns overtopped the good

light,
seed, shut
them out from the
and
drew away from
their roots the
moisture and richness of earth, which should have nourished them,
and thus they pined and dwindled

and stunted,
in
the shade.
They grew dwarfed
for the best of the soil did not feed
them
forming indeed a
was no
soil,
blade, but unable to form a full corn in the ear, bringing no fruit to perfection.
It is
not here,
as in the
first
case,
that there
or
none deserving the name

a poor or shallow
soil
;
nor yet
as in the second case, that there
was
soil.
but what
was
deficient
Here there was no lack of soil, it might be good was a careful husbandry, a diligent eradiwould op-
cation of the mischievous growths, which, unless extirpated,
press and strangle whatever sprung up side by side with them.
Of this
part of the parable
we have
'
the following explanation
" He
and
also that received seed

the cares \ of this
among the
thorns, is he that heareth the word,
world and the deceitfulness of riches [and the lusts of other things ^ entering in (Mark iv. \Q)'\, choke the word, and he hecomcth
* See Bernard
{Be
Offic.
Epist.,
c.
4,
14, 15), for an

this
interesting discussion,
it
whether the
faith of those
comprehended under
second head was, so long as

it
lasted, real or not,
in
fact,
on the question whether
be possible to
fall
from grace
given.
t Columella:
Angentem herbam.
in
The image
of an evil growth strangling a
nobler,
is
permanently embodied
in our fields
our language in the
name
cockle, given to
weed well-known
t
derived
Winer
from the Anglo-Saxon, ceocan, to choke.

in peutore curas.
Catullus
Spinosas Erycina sercns

IviOvjiia.
lusts
'H
ffcp! rii XoiTra
(Gratiwi., p. 177)
would
ratlicr
translate.
The
about other things (cupiditates quae circa reliqua versantur).
THE SOWER.
unfruitful,'^ or, as St.
It is
63
Luke
first
gives
it,
^^
they hring no fruit to perfection.''*
not here as in the

;
case, that the
word of God
is totally ineffec-
tual
nor yet as in
is
the second case, that after a temporary obedience
to
the truth, there
an evident falling
:
away from it, such

life
as the withering
of the stalk indicates
the profession of a spiritual
life is
retained, the
is
name
to live still
remains
but
?
the
and power of religion

to
by de-
grees eaten out and has departed.

these sad effects attributed
And
what disastrous influences are

life
To two
things, the cares of this world,
and
its
pleasures
It
these are the thorns and briars that strangle the
of the soul.f
may seem
strange at
first sight,
that these
which appear
so opposite to one
another, should yet be linked together, and have the
same
evil
consequences attributed
to
here present
us this earthly
life
them on its two

to
but the Lord does in fact
sides,
under
its
two aspects.
There
is first, its
crushing oppressive side, the poor man's
toil
how to live
for a
faith,
its
;
at all, to keep hunger and nakedness from the door, the struggle daily 'subsislence, " //ie cares of this life,"X which if not met in
hinder the thriving of the spiritual word in the heart.
But
life
has
flattering as well as its threatening side, its pleasures as well as its cares
and as those who have heard and received the word of the kingdom with gladness, are still exposed to be crushed by the cares of life, so on the
other hand, to be deceived
by
its
flatteries
its
and
its
allurements.
is
In
neither case has the world altogether lost
power, nor
first
the old
man
dead
for
awhile he
may seem
endures
dead, so long as the

;
joy on account
of the treasure found

presently revive in
*
all
but unless mortified in earnest, will
his strength
anew.
Unless the
soil
of the heart
It is es-
Oi
T'Ks<x(l,opovat.
The word
occurs only here in the
New
Testament.
pecially used of a
rity.
woman
bringing her child to the birth, or a tree
its fruit to
matu-
t See the Shepherd of Hernias,

tain covered with thorns
1.
3, sim. 9, c. 20, for the Jer. iv. 3

:
emblem
of the
moun-
and
briers
It
is
and so
" Break, up your fallow ground,
and sow not among thorns."
evident that in the great symbolic language of ihe

fitness for the expression of influences hostile
outward world, these have a peculiar

the truth.
to
They
are themselves the consequences and evidences of sin, of a curse

to
which has passed on from man

fitness of this
the earth
which he inhabits, (Gen.

its
iii.
17,)
till
that
earth had none other but a thorn-crown to yield to
Lord.
it,
It is
a sign of the deep
image
that others
have been led to select
for the setting forth of the

TrvKtvaX
same
truth.
Thus
the
Pythagorean Lysis (Baur's Apollonius,^. 192,)

rtoj/
jifi
xal \a-
oiai \6)(^nat TTcpi raj (ppevag KOt rav Kap6iav TTe(piicavTi

TOiv, ttSv to aixtpov koX
av^r\di\ft.cv
Kadapcjs roij fiaQi]âaiv opyiaavevjn-v
vpaov koX XoyiariKov rai ipv^Ss ima-Kioiôvaai, xal KoiXuovcrai rtpoipavui
Koi irpoKVil/ai to voriTiKov.

fjiipis,
Mcpifiva from
is
that
i.
which draws the heart different ways.
See Hos.
x.
" Their heart
divided,"
i.
e.
the di'iipStxpvxoi. (Jam.
8.)
between God and the world; such a heart constitutes See Passow, a. v./ip<//i'a, who quotes Terence Gurae
:
animum
diverse trahunt.
64
THE SOWER.
it seemed a thogrow up apace, and choke
be diligently watched, the thorns and briers, of which
rough clearance had been made,

the good seed.*
also
will again
While
that
which God promises

is
is felt
to be good,
but
what the world promises

kind,
felt
to
be good also, and a good of the
same
instead of a good merely and altogether subordinate to the
other, there will be

to serve
an attempt made
;
to
combine the service of the two,
God and mammon

will bring
but the attempt will be in vain
they who
to
make
it
no
fruit to perfection, will fail to
bring forth those per-
fect fruits of the Spirit,
which
it
was
the purpose of the
word of God
produce
proves
says, "
in
them.
The Saviour warns

to yourselves, lest at
us against the danger which
fatal to those in
this third condition of heart
and mind, when he

and so
Paul
Take heed
any time your hearts be overthis life,

;)
charged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of

that
day come upon you unawares;" (Luke

writes, "
xxi.
34
and
St.
when he
They
that will
be rich,
fall
into temptation
and a
in
snare, and into
many
foolish
and hurtful
lusts,
;
which drown men

vi.
destruction and perdition."
(1
Tim.
vi.
see Matt.
25
34.)"j"
But
spiritual
ii is
not all the seed

is to
husbandman
of the Lord, he will

*
which thus sooner or later perishes. The sow in hope, knowing that with the blessing not always sow in vain, that a part will prosper.:(:
Thauler {Dom. 22 post Trin., Serin. 2)
loliis
Thus with
ipsi,
a deep heart-knowledge
Nostis
quod
dum
agar sive hortus a
ac zizaniis expurgatur, ut plurimum
radices qusedam zizaniorum in terrse visceribus maneant, ita
tamen
ut
minime deprcseniina
hendantur.
oriri
Interim
humus
diligentur conseritur atque sarritur: ubi

fixis
dum bona
deberent, simul zizania ex radicibus terrae
succrescunt, et frumentum aliasSic ergo et in presenti loco
que herbas el semina bona destruent opprimentque.
radices dico, pravos quosque defectus et vitia in fundo latentia, et

quae per confessionem et pcenitentiam, ut ita dicam, sarrita
exercitia exarata
:
necdum
mortificala
quidem
sunt, et per
bona
attamen vitiosarum radicum malaj inclinationes seu propensiones,

irae vel invidiae,
puta vel superbiae vel luxuriae,

relictae
seu odii hisque similium in ipso fundo
sunt, quae postea exoriuntur, et ubi divina, beata, virtuosa, laudabilis vita ex pro-
homine germinare.succrescere, oriri deberet,hsec pessima noxiarum radicum germina

deunt, fructusque
iliius
ac religiosam devotamque dispergunl,extinguunt, obruunt vitam.

1.
t Ovid's description {Metamorph.,
5, v.
4G3-46G,) of the
tilings
which hinder
the returns of an harvest exactly include, with a few slight additions, those which our
Lord has given
though the order
is
little
different
Et modo
sol
nimius, nimius niodo corripit imber

;
Sideraque ventique nocent
avidieque volucres
Seniina jacta legunt; lolium tribulique faligant

Triticeas messes, et inexpugnabile gramen.
t
Thus
the author of a
sermon Augustini 0pp.,
v.
6, p.
597, Bened. ed.
Non
ergo no9, dilectissimi, aut timor spinarum, aut saxa petrarum, aut durissima via perterreat
:
dum tamen
seminantes verbuni Dei ad terrani bonani tandem aliquando pervesterilis, sive
nire possimus. dus.
Acclpe vcrbum Dei, omnis ager, omuls homo, sive

tu vide
foe-
Ego spargam,
(luomodo accipias
ego erogem,
tu vide
qunles fructus reddas.
THE SOWER.
" Other fell
into
65
good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundred

St.
fold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold."
Luke
says simply, " and
baTe fruit a hundred fold," leaving out the two lesser proportions of return which St. Mark gives ; who, however, reverses the order of the
three, beginning from the smallest return,
and ascending
thus
to the highest.
The
return of a hundred for one
is
not unheard of in the East, though

;
always mentioned as something extraordinary

that he sowed, " and received in the
it is
said of Isaac^
fold, and the Lord blessed him ;" (Gen. xxvi. 12;) and other examples of the same
same year a hundred
kind are not wanting.*
We
learn that " he that receiveth seed into the good ground, is he
that heareth the
word and understandeth
it,
which also beareth fruit, and
bringeth forth some a hundred fold, some sixty,

the important variation of St.
and some
the
thirty," or with
they,
Luke, "
that on the
good ground are
who
in
an honest and good heart having heard
word keep
it
it,-\
bring forth fruit with patience"
important, because
and
in
comes
distinctly
forward a
difficulty,
which equally existed
in the parable as
recorded
dis-
by the other Evangelists, but did not come forward with an equal
tinctness,
tation
and yet on the right solution of which a successful interpre-
must altogether depend. What is this " honest and good heart how can any heart be called good, before the Word and Spirit have made
it
so ? and yet here the seed fnds a good soil, does not make it. The same question recurs, when the Lord says, " 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 is
it
But who
in this sinful
world
can be called " of the truth,"

Bible that
not the universal doctrine of the
men become
" of the truth" through hearing Christ's words,
not that they hear his words because they are of the truth
is
that the heart

same time
good, through receiving the word, not that
it
receives the word, because
it is
good %% This
is
certainly the scriptural doctrine, but at the
* Herodotus mentions that two hundred fold was a
common
return in the plain of
Babylon, and sometimes three
and Niebuhr, (Beschreib.

:
v. Arab., p. 153,)
(in loc.)
mentions
a species of maize (hat returns four hundred fold
Wetstein
has collected
many examples from

tioned in the text.
antiquity of returns as great as, or far greater than, that
men-
Kar;ôt)(T(.
So John
viii.
51, rnpîv
rdi/ \6yoi>,
to hold fast the

it
word.
St.
Mark
and
also has
soul.
an instructive word
napaSi^"'^'^"')
'hey receive
into their
inward
life
difficulty and solves it in this quorum enim erant bona opera ? Nonne venisti ut justifices impios? He replies; Initium operum bonorum confessio est operum malorum. Facis veritatem, et venis ad lucem. Quid est, facis veritatem ? non te palpas, non
X
Augustine (In Ev. Joh., Tract. 12,) puts the

:
manner
Quid
est
hoc
tibi
blandiris,
non
tibi
adularis,
non
dicis,
Justus sum,
cum
sis
iniquus; et incipis
facere veritatem.
66
THE SOWER.
much
those passages from St. John, as well as this present parable, and
more
also in the Scripture, bear witness to the fact that there are condi-
tions of heart in
which the truth
" Being of the truth,"
" doing
finds readier
entrance than
the soil
as
in othi^s.
truth,"
and good heart,"

rior to hearinfT
all
signify the
God's words
same thing. coming to the light

in
having of " an Inasmuch they bringing

is is
honest
are ante-
forth fruit
they cannot signify a state of mind and heart in which the truth
positive
and realized, but they indicate one

truth.
which there
a receptivity for the

soil,
No heart
only.
can be said
to
be absolutely a good
as none
is
;
good
save
so
And yet the Scripture speaks often comparatively it may be said of some hearts, that
God
will alone receive the
of good
men
even
son of
they are a
soil fitter
for receiving the seed of everlasting life than others.
Thus the"
x. 6,)
peace"
message of peace, (Luke
while yet
truly
is
not anything except the reception of that message will
make him
it
a son of peace.
He was
before indeed a latent son of peace, but

that
the
Gospel which
first
makes actual
find tinder,
which was hitherto only
potential.
So
that the preaching of the Gospel

:
may
be likened
to the scattering
of
sparks
flame
ing
to
;
where they
there they fasten, and kindle into a
or to a lodestone thrust in
itself all
among
the world's rubbish, attractfor this
particles of true metal,
which yet but
would
never and could never have extricated themselves from the surrounding
heap.
Not otherwise among those
to
whom
the
word of
Christ, as actually
preached by himself, came, there were two divisions of men, and the
same will always subsist in the world. There were first the false-heartwho loved their darkness and ed, who called evil good and good evil
hated the light that would
make
that darkness manifest,
and refused
walk
in that
light
of the Lord even

into their
for the
when
it
shone round about them,
drawing back further

justifiers,
own darkness
self-excusers and
self-
such as were
Christ
most part the Scribes and the Pharisees,
with
whom
came
first,
in contact.
But there were
also others, sinners
as well, often as regards actual transgression of positive law
much greater
sinners than those
but
who
yet acknowledged their evil
wish
to alter the everlasting relations
between right and wrong
had no who,
when
they
the light appeared, did not refuse to be
drawn
to
it,
even though
knew
that
it
would condemn
lives
their darkness
that
it
would require
an entire remodelling of their

and the Zacchaûses,
that
I
and hearts
such were the Matthews
all
who
it is
confessed their deeds justifying God.
Not
would
pi-efer to instance these as
examples of the good and honest
heart, except in so far as
needful to guard against a Pelagian abuse

the Lord's language here does not conto
of the phrase, and to
show how
demn even
great and grievous sinners
an incapacity for receiving the
THE SOWER.
word of life.
67
Nathanael would be a yet more perfect specimen of the
class here alluded to
"
the Israelite indeed, in
whom was
soil
no guile"
which was saying

good heart,
life,
in other words, the
man
with the
of an honest and
fitted for
receiving and nourishing the word of everlasting

;
and bringing forth fruit with patience

;
one of a simple,
to the light
truthful,
and earnest nature

diligent in the
who had been

for
faithful
which he had,
and best
performance of the duties which he knew, who had not

imparting to him his
last
been resisting God's preparation

gift,
even the knowledge of his Son.
that the good soil
For we must keep ever in mind comes as much from God, as the seed which is to find
the preaching of repentance, God's secret
there
its
home.
and
The law and

thus
and preventing grace, run
before the preaching of the

that
word of the
kingdom
when
it,
word comes,
it
finds
life,
some with greater
readiness for receiving
as a
word of eternal
fold, in
than others.
When
it
the different measures of prosperity are given,

in
in
that the seed
brought forth
some an hundred
to
some
sixty,
and
some
thirty,
seems
difficult
determine whether these indicate different degrees
of fidelity in those that receive the word, according to which they bring
forth fruit unto
God more
or less abundantly, or rather different spheres

to
of action more or less wide, which they are appointed
occupy, as to
one servant were given

the diligence
five talents,
to
another two
in
which instance
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

St.
other
should suppose, however, the former.*
The words which

Mark
iv.
Luke
lie
records, (ver. 18,) " Take heed therefore how ye hear, for whosoto
ever hath
him shall be given, and whosoever hath not from him shall
to
taken even that which he seemeth

for
have," (see also
23,) are
very important
the avoiding
misunderstanding of our parable,
which
in
else
might easily have arisen.

hearers,
The
disciples
might have been

in
danger of supposing that these four conditions of heart,

its
which the
definitively
word found
fixed
;
were permanent, immutable, and

in
and therefore that
one heart the word must flourish, in another

all,
that
it
could never germinate at

while.
in others that
it
could only prosper
for a little
Now
the warning, " Take heed

for
it
how ye hear,"
ob-
viates the possibility of
such a mistake,
5, c. 39, 2,)
tells
us that, according as
and Cyprian
Evangelic
So Irenaeus (Con. Hcer.,

:
1.
must have understood
it,
{Ep.G9)
Eadem
gratia spiritualis quae sequaliter in baptismo
a credentibus sumitur, in
conversatione atque actu nostro
postmodum
vel minuitur vel augetur, ut in
Doniinicum semen
in multiformem
aequaliter seminatur, sed pro varietate terraj aliud absumitur, aliud

vel
copiam
tricesimi, vel sexagesimi, vel centesimi
numeri fructu ex-
uberante cumulatur.
68
the
THE SOWER.
word
is
heard and received, will

all
its
success be
that
while
it is
indeed true that
which has gone before in a man's life, will greatly influence the manner of his reception of that word, for every event will have tended either to the improving or deteriorating the soil of his heart,
will therefore render will prosper there,
it
and
more or
it
less probable that the seed of
God's
word
yet
lies in
him now
to
take heed
how he
hears, and through this taking heed to ensure, with God's blessing, that
it
come to a successful issue. (Compare Jam. i. 21.) For while this is true, and the thought is a solemn one, that there is such a thing as laying waste the very soil in which the seed of eternal
shall
life
should have taken root

is,
that every act of sin, of unfaithfulness to
the light within us,
as
it
were, a treading of the ground into more

it,
hardness, so that the seed shall not sink in

that the seed
shall find
or a wasting of the
fitting it to
;
soil,
so
no nutriment there, or a
nourish
thorns and briars more kindly than the good seed
yet on the other
hand, even
tions,
soil
for those
who have brought themselves

soft
into these evil condi:
a recovery
is still,
through the grace of God, possible
may
again become
deep
and
the hard
rich and
its soil,
the
shallow
soil
may become
it
the soil beset with thorns open and clear.*
For the heavenly

finds
seed in this differs from the earthly, that the latter as

it
so
must use
it,
for
it
cannot alter
soil
it
it
be acted upon by the

it,
upon
it is
softening
it
where
But the heavenly seed, if where it is cast, also reacts more mightily is hard, (Jer. xxiii. 29,) deepening it where
its
nature.
shallow, cutting up and extirpating the roots of evil where

these,
it is
en-
cumbered with
and wherever
it is
allowed free course, transformsoils,

fit
ing and ennobling each of these inferior
till
it
has become that
which man's heart was

that Divine
at first,
good ground,
to afford
nourishment
to
Word,
that seed of eternal life.f
So Augustine {Serm. 73,

projicite,
c.
3)
Mutamini cum
potestis
dura aratro versate, de

cor,
agro lapides
de agro spinas evelliie.
Nolite habere
durum
unde
cito ver-
bum
Dei pereat.
Nolite habere tenuem terram, ubi radix charitatis alta
non sedeat.
Sed estote
v. 6, p.
Nolite curis et cupiditatibus secularibus ofTocare

laboribusnostris.
terra bona.
bonum semen, quod

a
vobis spargitur
Etenim Dominus seminal

;
sed nos operarii ejus sumus.
Cf. Serrn. 101, c. 3

:
and the author of
sermon, August. 0pp.,
597,
Bened. ed.
Si
vero te terram infoccundam aut spinosam vel siccain sentis, recurre ad
Creatorem
illo
tuuni.
Hoc enim nunc
agitur, ut innoveris, ut foecunderis, ut irrigeris

et
ab
qui posuit desertum in
stagna aquarum,
terram sine aqua
in
exitus aquarum.
(Ps. cvi. 35-37.)
As
our Saviour in this parable, so the Jewish doctors divide

classes.
it
tlie
hearers of the
words of wisdom into four

that
it
The
best they liken to a sponge that drinks in all

;
receives,
and again expresses

to
for others
ii.
the worst to a strainer
the good
wine
pass through, (see Heb.

is
1, jin noTc vapapi'ivuinev,)
which allows all and retains only

lets
whatever of dregs
worthless and of no account, or to a sieve that
through the
THE TARES.
gg
PARABLE
11.
THE TARES.
Matthew
xiii.
24-30, and 36-43.
"Another
lips
parable put he forth unto them."*
''of the tares of the field"
of our Lord himself.
Of this parable also, that we have an authentic interpretation from the And this is well for it is one, as all students
:
of Church history are aware, on the interpretation of which very
much
has turned before now.

troversy which the
Allusion
to to
to
it
occurs
at
every turn of the con;
Church had
it
maintain with the Donatists
and the
to dis-
whole exposition of
will
need
be carried on with reference
putes which, though seemingly gone by, yet are not in fact out of date,
since in one shape or another they continually re-appear in the progress
of the Church's development, and in every heart of man.

disputes
we shall presently arrive. " The kingdom of heaven is likened From our Lord's own unto a man that sowed good seed in his field." This lips we learn, " He that sowed the good seed is the Son of man."
fine flour
To
these
and retains only the bran.

Christus
Prudentius {Con. Symm.,

lines:
. .
1.
2, v.
1022) has put
this parable well into verse.
These are a few

.
dedit heec prsecepta colonis:
Semina ciim
sulcis committitis, arva cavete
Dura lapillorum made, ne decidat illuc Quod seritur primo quoniam praefertile germen
:
Luxuriat
succo
mox
deficiente, sub aBstu
Sideris igniferi sitiens torretur et aret.
Neve
in spinosos incurrant
semina vepres
Aspera
nam
segetem surgentem vincula texunt,

spargantur in aggere grana
Ac
fragilescalamos nodis rubus arctat acutis.

viae
:
Et ne jacta
Haec avibus quia nuda patent, passimque vorantur,
Immundisque jacent
fceJa
ad ludibria corvis
Talis nostrorum solertia centuplicatos
Agrorum
*
JlaptdrjKev.
redigit fructus.
The word
and
is
implies that he set
it
before
them as one would
set forth
spirit-
or propose a riddle,
used because the parable has always something of the

to call into exercise the spiritual sense of those to
its
ual enigma, and as such
is
whom it is
proposed, that they
may
discover
solution.
(l\Iark iv. 34, Ue'Xve, he solved them.)
Rosenkranz {Gesch.
d. Deuts. Poesie in Mittelalt., p.
484
seq.) quotes
from an old
German poem a whole

bles.
string of riddles proposed for solution
under the form of para-
70
is
THE TARES.
title
the most frequent
by wliich our Lord designates himself, though

to indicate that the glorified Sa-
it is
never given him by any other, except in a single instance, (Acts

56,) and then
it
vii.
would seem only
He was often understood, Church and among the Reformers, by tliis title to signifywhile others nothing more than his participation in the human nature have said that he assumed the name as the one by which the hoped-for Messiah was already commonly known among the people. But it is clear that, on the contrary, the name was a strange one to them, so that,
viour appeared bodily to the eyes of Stephen.
in the early
;
hearing
it,
they asked, "
Who
is this
Son of man ?"
(John
xii.
34.)
The
popular
name
for the
Messiah
at the
time of our Lord's coming,
was Son of David.

Testament, Dan.
idea of man,*
(Matt. ix. 27
title,
doubt he claimed the

viii.
xii. 23; xv. 22 ; xx. 31, &c.) No ; (which was already given him in the Old
it
13,)
inasmuch as
was he who alone

first,
realized the
the second
Adam, who,
unlike the
should maintain
his position as the
head and representative of the race,
the one true and

manifest
itself,
perfect flower which had ever unfolded itself out of the root and stalk of
humanity.
And
using this
title
he witnessed against the twofold error

to
concerning his person which has ever been seeking

the Ebionite, to which the exclusive use of the
title
" Son of David "
might have led, and the Gnostic, against which the appellation " Son of man " must have been a continual witness.
At
first
there might
seem a
slight
disagreement between
this parable
and the preceding, as though the same symbol were used

places to signify very different things; for here
it
in the
two
is
explained, " The seed

is
good seed are

of
the children
of the kingdom,'' there,

is
"The
the
word
God;"
yet in reality there In that the
none, but only a progress from that pais
rable to this.
word of God
the instrument
by which men
i.
are born
i.
anew and become

word there
is
it is
children of the kingdom, (Jam.
18;
1 Pet.
itself,
23
;)
that
considered more absolutely in and by

it
while here
considered after
has been received into the heart,
in-
corporated with the
which has brought him into the position of a child of the kingdom, and which is now so vitally united with him, that tlic two cannot any more be considered asunder. (Compare
as that
Jer. xxxi.
man
27
Mos.
ii.
23; Zech.
is
x. 9.)
The
next words, " the field
the world,'' at
once bring us into the
heart of the controversy referred to already.
Words few and
slight,
and seemingly of
little
import, a great battle has been fought over them,
greater perhaps than over any single phrase in the Scripture, if

cept the consecrating words at the
Holy Eucharist.
It
is
well
we exknown
* So Philo calls the Logos
o aXriOivii
avOponos.
THE TARES.
that, putting aside the
7^
merely personal question concerning the irregugrounds on which the Donatists justiChurch Catholic were these The idea of
:
larity of certain ordinations, the

fied their
separation from the

is
the Church, they said,
that of a perfectly holy
body
holiness
is
not
all
merely one of
did not
its
its
essential predicates, but the essential, to
which
others must be suboi'dinated, the exclusive note of the Ciiurch.
They
deny
that
it
was
possible that hypocrites might lie concealed in

to
bosom, but where the evidently ungodly were suffered

it,
remain in
it
communion with
out from
it;
not separated off
by the exercise of
discipline, then
forfeited the character of the true Church, and the faithful were to
come
since remaining in
its
communion, by
defiled.
Isai.
the very presence of
the others they
would themselves be
In support of this view,

lii.
they maintained that such passages as
1,
and
all
other which
to
spoke of the future freedom of the Church from

applicable to
it
evil,
were meant
be
in its present condition,
and consequently, where they
were not
applicable,
there could not be the
Church.
Hero, as on so
many
other points, the
Church owes
to
to
Augustine, not the forming of her
doctrine, for that she
can owe
no man, but the bringing out into her
clear consciousness that which hitherto she had implicitly possessed, yet
had not worked out

she replied, not in
By him into a perfect clearness, even for herself. any way gainsaying the truth which the Donatists proclaimed, that holiness must be an essential predicate of the Church, but only refusing to accept their idea of that holiness, and showing how in the Church, which they had forsaken, this quality was to be found,
and combined with other as essential qualities
stance, to
;
catholicity, for in-
which they could make no claim.

Catholic, he replied, despite all appearances to the conits
The Church
trary, is an holy body, for they only are
members who
are in true
and living fellowship with Christ, therefore partakers of

Spirit.
his sanctifying
All others, however they

it,
may have
the outward notes of belong-
ing to
are in
;
it,
but not
of'ii
they press upon Christ, as that throng-
ing multitude
viii.
(Luke There are certain outward conditions without which one cannot pertain to his Church, but with which one does not necessarily do so.
45.)
they do not touch him, as that believing woman.
And
they
who
are thus in
it
but not of
their
it,
whether hypocrites lying
hid,
numbers may not without greater evils ensuing be expelled,* do not defile the true members, so long as these
or open offenders,
who from
* Augustine's
view of the extent
to
which
discipline
its
should be enforced, and the
questions of prudence which should determine
enforcing,
may
be judged from the
following passage.
Having
referred to these parables,
and
to
the separation of the

:
sheep and goats, Matt, xxv.) he proceeds (Ad Don. post
Coll., c. 5)
Quibus parabolis
etfiguris Ecclesia praenunciata est usque ad finem sa:culi bonos et nialossimul habitura,
72
share not in their
spirit,
THE TARES.
nor communicate with their evil deeds.
They
same ark as the clean, goats in the same pastures with the sheep, chaff on the same barn-floor as the grain, tares growing in the same field with the wheat, endured for a while, but
are like the unclean animals in the
in the
end
to
be separated
off,
the evil from the good. the
The
toric
Donatists wished to
make
Church
in its visible
form and
his-
manifestation,
identical
and co-extensive with the true Church
which the Lord knoweth and not man.

identity of the
Augustine also affirmed the
Church now
existing with the final and glorious
but he denied that they were co-extensive.
clogged with certain accretions which shall

belong, and never to have belonged, to
it
:
Church For now the Church is hereafter be shown not to

:
he affirmed
not, as his op-
ponents affirmed of him, two Churches, but two conditions of one and the
in
same Church the present, in which evil which it shall be free from all evil
;
;
is
endured
in
it,
the
future,
not two bodies of Christ, but
one body, in which

the natural body,
now
are wicked men, but only as evil

in the
humours
in
winch
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

from evil.*
ita ut
his
Church
in its present state as perfectly free
In proof he appealed to this parable
and that of the Draw.
mali bonis obesse non possint,

si
cum
vel ignorantur, vel pro pace et tranquillitate

aliis
Ecclesias tolerantur,
rint
eosprodi aut accusari non oportuerit, aut
bonis non potue-
demonstrari
ita
sane ut neque emendalionis vigilantia quiescat, corripiendo, delicitis

.
.
gradando, excommunicando, ceterisque coercitionibus
afque concefsis,
qiite
salva
unitatis pace in Ecclesia quotidie fiunt, caritate servata,
ne forl6 aut indisciplinata

This,
patientia foveat iniquitatem, aut inipatiens disciplina dissipet unitatem.

his anti-Donatist treatises,
is
among
the best for giving a notion of that part of the controversy
on which
*
this parable specially bears.

c.
Augustine {Serm. 351,
4): Multi enim corriguntur ut Petrus, multi toleran-
tur ut Judas, multi nesciuntur donee adveniat
Dominus, qui illuminet abscondita tenin
ebrarum,
et manifestet consilia
cordium.
And
another place
homines vivo, nee mihi arrogare audeo meliorem
Homo sum et inter domum meam quam area Noah.

:
He
often
rebukes the Donatists for their low Pharisaical views concerning what the
separation from sinners meant.

peccavit, non tetigisti
res exegit,
Thus {Serm.
88,
c.
20)
Displicuit
tibi
quod quisque
imniundum.
et qua;
Redarguisti,corripuisti,monuisti,adhibuisti etiam,si
:
congruam
is
unitatem non violat disciplinam, existi inde
see much
who
said,
more
that
excellent.
In another place he asks. Did the i)rophet of old,

(Isai.
lii.
"Go
ye out of the midst of her,"
11,)
church?
liber in
Continendo
permansit.
;
himself separate from the .Jewish

:
se a consensu
non
tetigit
immundum
objurgando autem exiit
conspectu Dei: cui neque sua Deus peccata imputat, quia non fecit, neque aliena,quia non approbavit, neque negligentiani, quia non tacuit, neque superbiam, quia
in unitate
cidit
Angelas
?
Paradisum
See also Ad Don. Post Coll., c. 20. And once more Cenumquid inquinavit cesium ? Cecidit Adam numquid inquinavit Cecidit unus de filiis Noc numquid inquinavit Justi domum 1 Cecidit
:
;
THE TARES.
net,
73
fish witli the
that as tares are
mingled with wheat, and the bad and
good, so the wicked with the righteous, and should remain so mingled
to the
end of the present age

all
;*
it
this not
merely as an
historic fact,
but that
attempts to have
otherwise are here expressly forbidden.
The
Donatists then were in fact acting as the servants in the parable

if,
would have done, There

hard
after the master's distinct prohibition, they

to root
had
gone and sought forcibly
out the tares.
will be occasion hereafter to note

tliat
how
the Donatists sought to
escape the argument drawn from

shifts to reply to this,
other parable.
but
made answer,
" By the
They were
The
put to
Lord's
own
showing "
the Jield" is not the
Church, but the world.
parable,
therefore, does not bear on the dispute betwixt us and

that dispute being not
you
in the least,
whether ungodly men should be suffered

every one who
is,
in the
world, (that
is
plain enough,) but whether they should be endured in the

it
Church. "]"
a dogmatic
first
But
must be evident
to
is
not warped
by
interest,:}:
that the parable
as the
Lord announces
at its
It
utterance, concerning the
kingdom of heaven, or the Church.
required no special teaching to acquaint the disciples, that in the world

there would ever be a mixture of good and bad, though they must have
been so
little
very needful
offended,
appear
that
to expect the same in the Church, that it was warn them beforehand, both that they might not be and think the promises of God had failed, when the evil should and also that they might know how to behave themselves, when
prepared
to
mystery of
iniquity,
now
foretold, should
begin manifestly
to
work.
JuJas; numquid inquinavit apostolorum chores]

indeed inedited
This
extract
is
from one of the
sermons in the volume of Sennones Inediti of Augustine

still,)
lately published, (they are
at Paris.
This Sermon
is
among
the not very
many, which
bear the stamp of unquestionable genuineness upon them. * Augustine

t See
:
Alia
est agri conditio, alia quies horrei.
Donatists
how Augustine answers this argument. Ad Don. jmst Coll., c. 8. As the professed to make much of Cyprian's authority, Augustine quotes often from
1.
him, (as Con. Gaudent.,
2, c. 4,)
:
words which show that he understood the parable

etsi
as one relating to the Church
Nam
videntur in EcclesicL esse zizania, non tamen
impediri debet aut fides aut caritas nostra, ut quoniam zizania esse in Ecclesia cerni-
mus,
ipsi
de Ecclesia recedamus.
cixva.
esse possimus, ut
cceperit
Nobis tantummodo laborandum est, ut frumentum frumentum Dominicis horreis condi, fructum pro opere
nostro et labore capiamus.

X
Commentators who have interpreted the
parable, irrespectively of that contro-
versy one
way
or the
other,
acknowledge
esse
this.
Thus Calvin
Quanquam autem
quin proprie hoc
Christus postea subjicit
mundum
agrum, dubium tamen non
est,
nomen ad Ecclesiam passim aratrum suum

toto
parti tantiim
aptare voluerit, de q\xi exorsus fuerat sermonem.
Sed quoniam
ducturus erat per omnes mundi plagas, ut

vitae
sibi
agros excoleret in
transtulit, quod.'
mundo, ac spargeret
semen, per synecdochen ad
mundum
magis quadrabat.
74
Nor need
it,
THE TARES.
the term
*'
world " here used perplex us in the least

so, till this
it
was
the world, and therefore was rightly called
seed was sown in
but thenceforth was the world no longer.

for
No
narrower word would
have sufficed
him, in whose prophetic eye the word of the Gospel

as going forth into all lands, and
was contemplated
sown
in
every part
of the great outfield of the nations. " But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed * tares among the
wheat, and went his loay."
Our Lord
to
did not invent here
a form of
malice without example, but alluded
one which, though elsewhere

to his
unnoted in Scripture, was familiar enough

of execution, involving so
lasting a mischief,
that
it
hearers
one
so easy
little
is
risk,
and yet effecting so great and so
not strange, that where cowardice and

dis-
malice met, this should often have been the shape in which they
played themselves.
in the
We
meet traces of
it
in
many
directions.
is
Thus
Roman law
the possibility of this form of injury

illustrating Scripture from the
contemplated,
and a modern writer

affirms the
manners and habits
of the East, with which he had become familiar through a sojourn there,
same
to
be
now
practised in India.
" See," he says, " that
lurking villain
his field
:
watching
for the
time
when
his
neighbour shall plough

fin-
he carefully marks the period when the work has been

in the night following,
ished,
and goes
i.
and casts in what the natives call
pandinellu,
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.
wretches cast into
But there is another noisome plant which these the ground of those they hate, called perum-pirandi,
to vegetation
which
says,
is
more destructive
will plant the
than any other plant.
Has
man purchased
'
a field out of the hands of another, the offended person
Many have made

rulers in the Church,
the
perum-pirandi in his grounds.' "f first words here significant, and suppose that
they indicate the negligence and lack of watchfulness on the part of
whereby ungodly men should creep

and
in practice.:}:
in
unawares,
introducing errors in doctrine
(Acts
xx. 29, 30
* In the Vulgate, su;5erseininavit, as in the Rhemish, ocersowed, according to the

better reading, iirtancipcv,
which Lachmann
retains.
t Roberts' Oriental Illustrations, p. 541.

station in India confirms this account.
friend
who
has occupied a judicial
We
are not without this form of malice nearer
home.
Thus in sow wild oats in
Ireland
have
known an outgoing
tenant, in spite at his ejection, to
the fields
which he was leaving.
These,
like
the plant mentioned
above, ripening and seeding themselves before the crops in which they were mingled, it became next to impossible to get rid of them.
}
So Augustine
(Quttst. ex Matth., qu. 9)
Ciim negligentius agerent
prtepositi
THE TARES.
Jude 4
;
75
thus indefinitely put, and
so,
2 Pet.
ii.
1, 2,
19.)
But seeing
if
it is
the servants,
first
who
should have watched,
any should have done

that the
are
designated at a later stage of the history, and then without anything

past omission on their part,
it
to
mark a
would seem
men who
is
slept are not
such as should have done otherwise, but the phrase
equi-
valent to " at night," and
means nothing further. (Job xxxiii. 15.) 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 soiced " the tares, we learn, " is the devil,"* so that we behold Satan here, not as he works beyond the limits of the Church,
deceiving the world, but in his far deeper
skill
and malignity, as he
:
at
once mimics and counterworks the work of Christ

Chrysostom, " after the prophets, the false prophets
the false apostles; after Christ, Antichrist. "f
;
in the
words of
after the apostles,
We
may
further notice with
what
distinctness the doctrine concern-
ing 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 our Lord's
teaching
in the
;
New.
till
As
the
the lights
come deeper but were in mercy not

and even here
it
suffered
become brighter, the shadows bemightier power of good was revealed, we to know how mighty was the power of evil
:
is in
each case only
to the
innermost circle of the

is
dis-
ci pies, that the

till
explanation concerning Satan
given.
So
it
was not
that
the
Son of man actually appeared on the stage of the world,

it
Satan came distinctly forward upon

opens his ministry
tempter of him
for the setting
also
but the instant that Christ

at the
up of the kingdom of God,
same
the
instant Satan starts forward as the hinderer
and adversary of
it,
who
is
the head and
prince of this kingdom.:}:
And
sig-
Ecclesiae
r.ificat
TTODf,
and Chrysostom.
H. de
Sto. Victore {Annott. in

'
Matth.)
Mortem
:
Apostolorum sive torporem prselatorum.
But Grolius more rightly

dicas,
'Avdpu-
hie indefinitum est,
non universale; quasi

;
cum
dormiretur: hoc autem

:
nihil est aliud
quam
descriptio opportunitatis
dicit custodes, si dicit
and Cajetan's remark has value

is
Cum
dormirent homines, non
enim
dixisset custodes, intelligeremus negli-
gentiam custodum accusari, sed
homines, ut inculpabiles intelligamus, naturali

only explicable
somno ocupatos.
Jerome's Dormiente j'atre-fainilids (Ad. Lucif.,)
as other than an error on this view.

* Zizaniator, as therefore he has been called
;
see
Du Cange,
s. v.
zizanium
and
by Tertullian {De Animd,
c.
16,)
Avenarum superseminatorem,
no doubt there
et frumentaricB segetis
(c.
nocturnum interpolatorem.
one be found among them,
parable.
When
Ignatius exhorts the Ephesians

is
10) that no
this
tou 6ia/36\ov Poravri,
an
allusion to
t Cf. Tertullian,
t
Be
PrcBScr. Haret., c. 31.

12) has observed this
:
Bengel (on Ephes.
vi.
Quo
apertius quisque
Scripturas
JQ
THE TARES.
kingdom of God
instead of hearing less of Satan, as the mystery of the
proceeds
to
unfold
itself, in
the fortune of the
and he
other.
It
is
brouo-ht
which details Church till the" end of time, we hear more of him in more evidently and openly working than in any
the last book of Scripture, that
too, that
;
is
very observable,
of the Son of
is
Satan
is
spoken of as his enemy,
the
enemy
man
for here, as in so
many
other places, the
great conflict
spoken of as rather between Satan and the Son of man,

It
than between Satan and God.
was
part of the great
scheme of
re-
demption, that the victory over evil should be a moral triumph, not a
triumph
obtained by a mere putting forth of superior strength.*

for this
We
can see how important

should also win
the
end
it
was, that man,
who
lost the battle,
it, (1 Cor. xv. 21,) and therefore as by and through kingdom of darkness was to be overthrown, so the enmity of the Serpent was specially directed against the seed of the woman, the Son The title given him is " The wicked one y" the article is emof man.
man
phatic,
and points him out as the absolutely
evil,
of
whom
in
;
the
ground of
at all,
his being is evil.
For as God
i.
is light,
and
in
him
is
no darkness
(1
John
is
i.
Jam.
17,) so Satan is darkness,
and
him
is
no light;
there
no truth in him.
Man
is
in a
middle position
he detains the
truth in
but,
unrighteousness; light and darkness in him are struggling;
whichever
still
may
predominate, the other
is
there,
kept
down
indeed,
but
with the possibility of manifesting
itself.
is
Herein
lies the pos;
sibility
of a redemption for man. that his will

is
only perverted
but
for a
Satan's will
inverted, for he has said
what
it
is
never possible
man
for
to say, or at least/idly to act
upon, " Evil, be thou
my
good ;" and
therefore as far as
we can
for the
see, a
redemption and restoration are impossible
him.
It
makes much
beauty of the parable, and
is
full
of instruction,
that
wheat and tares are not seeds of

;'j"
different kinds, but that the last is a
degenerate or bastard wheat
so that, in the very
emblems which
the
liber de
oeconomia
et
gloria Christi agit, eo apertius rursum de regno contraiio tene-
branim.
* In Augustine's
memorable words: Diabolus non potentia Dei sed
justitia super-
andus
erat.
+ It is well known that the word î^dvtov nowhere occurs except here, and in the Greek and Latin Fathers who have drawn it from this parable. The Eiijmol. Mag.
gives another derivation of the word besides that quoted by Schleusner, and a better,
though even that
will
scarcely
command
assent
vapa t6 aiToi Kai

it
t^dvb),
that
which
is
grows
side
;
by side with the wheat.

neither
is
Tertullian always renders
by avena, which
incorrect
Augustine
;
sufficiently exact
is
it,
when he
says,
Omnis immunditia
German, Tollkorn,
in
segete zizania dicitur
nor again
the
as our translators would seem to have under-
stood
it,
the
vicia,
but
a7pa, or
lolium temulentum, (in
in
THE TARES.
Lord
uses, the
77
Manichsean error
the (falsely assumed) fact, that
proceeds
to
argue, that as
guarded against, which, starting from wheat and tares are different in kind, tares by no process of culture can become
is
wheat, so nehher can the children of the wicked one become children of
the kingdom.
Satan
is
no Ahriman who can create children of darkness

Calvin* himself, whatever
he can only
spoil children of light,
may have
been the case with some who call themselves by his name, is careful to guard against that conclusion here, which would have been an abuse of parabolical language, a pressing of accidental circumstances too far.f
French, yvroie,) having that addition
to
distinguish
it
from the lolium proper, with

of the vertigo which
it
which
it
has nothing but the
name
in
common, because
causes,
when mingled with and eaten in bread. This in the East, despite its poisonous qualThe it being so hard to separate it from the wheat. ities, not uncommonly happens assertion made above, that it is a degenerate wheat, seems, I think, perfectly made " Wheat Lightfoot quotes these words, distinctly asserting it, from the Talmud. out. and zunin are not seeds of different kinds.' Where the gloss is this,' zunin is a kind
'
of wheat which
is
changed
in the earth,
both as to
its
form and to
is
its
nature.' "
And
in a passage quoted by Buxtorf, {Lex. Talm., p. 680,) this gressive deterioration of nature,
noted as part of the pro-
which went hand
in
hand with man's wickedness;

Michafilis indeed
" they sowed wheat and the earth brought forth zunin."
{Mos.
Recht,
V. 4, p.
322,) says that these Rabbis,
their lives, are not to be listened to in the
who probably never saw a corn-field in matter see also Ambrose Hexaeifl., 1. 3, c.
:
10.
Yet on
old
the other
hand Pliny {H. N.,

potius
the
1,
18, c. 17,) says of the lolium as of

inter ipsius terree
some
:
other plants, inter
frugum morbus
upon
quam
pestem numeraverim
lolium, writes thus
difficulty of
and an
Scholiast
Georgics, on the words, Infelix
Triticum et hordeum in lolium mutantur.
This quite explains the
know-
ing them apart, and the danger, therefore, of plucking up one for the other: since only
when
the grains begin to form, that of the lolium being dark,

itself.
is
sometimes nearly black,
the difference clearly reveals
The tendency
of wheat, badly cultivated, to de1.
generate
is
well
known, and
(see
noted by Columella (De Be Rust.,
2, c. 9)
triticum solo uliginoso post tertiam sationem convertitur in siliginem.
Omne The same

:
happened with the Grape

(labruscas).
Gesenius on
Isai. v. 2)
"
It
brought forth wild grapes"
The tendency
of the uncared-for tree to
fall
away from
its first
perfec-
tion, of the neglected seed to
worsen,
is
but another of the infinite and wonderful ana-
logies
which
the world of nature supplies to the

îC,,\vi.w is
workl of man.
By
far the fullest

p.
and
:
most satisfying account of the

I
given by Schultetus {Crit. Sac. v. 6,
2026)
had not seen
it
when
the
the note above
was
written, but
it
arrives altogether at
the
same conclusions.
* Observing
how
Manichaeans have abused

tarn in diabolo,
;
this
passage he proceeds
Atqui
in-
scimus, quidquid
vitii est
quam
in
hominibus non aliud esse quam

to like abuse,
it,
tegrae naturae corruptelam

viii.
and Augustine, on a passage exposed
(John
44,) "
Ye
;
are of your father the devil," guards against such, explaining
Imi-
Compare Irenaeus, Con. Har., 1. 4, c. 41. 2, and Grotius on Matt. vii. 18 and who has not heard in arguments concerning predestination, how goats can never become sheep, nor sheep goats ? (Matt. xxv. 32, 33.)
t
tando non nascendo.
Chrysostom rather has
right,
when {De Pwnit., Horn.
8) he
compares
the
Church
78
THE TARES.
in
even supposing that the tares and wheat had been altogetlier different
their kinds.
But the
fact
in natural history,
noticed above, besides resthis
cuing
this
passage from the possibility of being so abused, makes also
image peculiarly instructive and curiously adapted

the origin of evil, that
it is
to the setting forth

;
not a generation, but a degeneration

it,
that,
deji.
as Augustine often expresses

cient cause.*
it
has not an
efficient,
but only a
Having sown
Church,
often has
his tares, the

first
enemy
" went his way."

to be his.
The work
often, in
did
not evidently, and at
sight,
appear
How
the
the beginnings of evil have been scarcely discernible,

that
how
which bore the worst

form of good.
in
fruit
in
after-times, looked at first
like a higher
could see the mystery of was already working could detect the imnclujn saliens out of which it would unfold itself; but to most, evil would not appear as evil till it had grown to more ungodliSt. Paul, indeed,
iniquity,
which,
the apostolic times,
ness
just as the tares did

iij)
not,
to the
servants, appear to be such
till
" the Made ivas sjjnwg
and brought forth fndt." All who have written

that, as
on the subject have noted the great similarity

exists
might be expected,
formed
between the wheat and
this lolium or tare,
while yet in the blade,

is
;
so that they are only distinguishable

filling literally the
when
the ear
thus
ful-
Lord's words, "
Augustine, noting
bring forth
racter,
how
it
By their fruits ye shall know them." was only when the blade began to ripen and
tares
fruit, that
the
began also
it is
to
appear in their true cha-
most truly remarks, that

evil to appear.
to
only the opposition of good which
makes
except
to
him who
in
is
" None," he says, " appear evil in the Church, good ;" and again, " When one shall have begun
all
be a spiritual man, judging

;":}:
things, then errors begin to appear to
him
and
another place he makes the following observations, drawn

:
from the depths of his Christian experience

good, to bear the contrary
not offended has profited
"
It is
;
a great labour of the
manners of
the wicked
by which he who
he
is
little,
for the righteous, in proportion as
re-
to a better ark.
Into the other ark, as
ilie
animals entered so they came out
an
hawk
entered
this
in,
and an liawk came

has entered
;
forth, a
wolf entered
in,
and a wolf came

a
forth. in,
But into
*
an
hawk
in,
and a dove comes out;
wolf has entered
and a sheep
issues forth
a serpent has entered in, and a Inmb comes forth.
De Civ. Dei. I. 12, c. 7. The testimony of .Terome,
himself resident in Palestine,
may
here be adduced:
est, et
Inter triticum et zizania, quod nos appellamus lolium,
quamdiu herba
nondum
culmus venit ad spicam, grandis similitudo est,et

cilis distantia.
t
in discernendo aut nulla aut perdifFi-
Quasi, ex Matt., qu. 12
where
is to
be found an admirable exposition of the
whole parable.
THE TARES.
cedes from his
79
own
wickedness,
is
grieved by 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
:
and
this is true, not
only in the collective Church, but in each individual
member
of
it,
that as the
new man
is
formed in him, the old

will
man
will
into
become more and more

distinct opposition.
displeasing,
come more and more
" So the servants of the householder came and said, unto Mm, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?"
Theophylact interprets
heresies, scandals,
^'
this
of the angels, indignant that there should be

in the
and ofiences
Church
for
having explained,
while
men
slept, ''^
is,
of the comparative negligence of the householder's
servants, that
of some Church rulers
who ought
better to
have kept
finds
the borders of the

it
Church from
the incursions of the
enemy, he now
inconvenient
to
understand the same servants as those so
much
offended
by the mischief which had been done.
But the angels are

liiat this
so clearly
pointed out (ver. 30) as different from the servants, mistake and even granting that the words " while
,
must be a
cate, as
still it is
he supposes, the negligence of some

easy
to say,
some
slept,
men slept,'' do indiwho ought to have watched, and some wished to do away with the
These servants are not angels,
animated those disciples,
the
spirit as
consequence of the others' negligence.

but men, speaking out of the same
who would
fain
have commanded
fire to
come down from heaven on
inhospitable Samaritan village.
Those
disciples, as the servants here,

;
did well that they had a righteous zeal for their Master's honour
in
but
each case the zeal needed
to be
tempered and restrained.
The
field
question which they ask, " Didst not thou soio good seed in thy
not put merely to give opportunity for the householder's re-
.?" is
:
ply
but expresses well the perplexity, the surprise, the inward ques-
tionings,
which must
too
often be
felt,
which
in the
first
ages, before long
custom had
been
felt
much
reconciled to the mournful spectacle, must have

all
very strongly by
who were
zealous for God, at the woful
and unexpected appearance which the
visible
Church presented. Where

any such
have questioned their own
was
the " glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or
thing ?"
spirit,
Well, indeed, might the
faithful
have poured out their hearts

this,
in prayer, of
which the burden
should have been nearly
" Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ?
from whence
*
then hath
it
tares ?
didst thou not constitute thy
Church
sua.
to
Tantum enim
mei
:
torquet justum
iniquitas aliena,
quantum
recedit a
Cf.
Enarr. in Ps. cxix. 4, and in Ps. ex!.:

fabricatoria
coepi resculpi, et
Nondum sum
totus instauratus ad
imaginem
ex ea parte qua reformer, disciplicet mihi quod de-
forme
est.
80
be a pure and holy
THE TARES.
communion
?
is
?
not the doctrine such
as should
only produce fruits of righteousness
whence then
is
it
that
even with-
in the holy precincts tkemselves, there should be so selves openly sin and cause others to sin ?"*
many who themto its origin

:
But
in the householder's reply, the

It is
mischief is traced up
"An
eneiny hath done this."
attributed not to the imperfection, ig-
norance, weakness, which cling to everything human, and which would
prevent even a Divine idea from being more than very inadequately
realized by
men
;
but to the distinct counterworking of the great spirit-
ual
enemy
they are " spiritual wickednesses."
No
doubt in the fur-
ther question, " Wi/t thou then that
we go and gather them up ?" the

difficult to
resi-t,
temptation to use outward power for the suppression of error, a temptation
which the Church

its
itself
has sometimes found
it
finds
voice and utterance. f
But they were

at the
unfit to be trusted here.
Their zeal was but an Elias zeal
best.
(Luke
ix.
54.)
They
who And
thus speak have often no better than a Jehu's " zeal for the Lord."
therefore "
all
/te
said,
Nay."
By
this prohibition are doubtless for-
bidden
such measures
for the excision of heretics
and other offenders,
as shall leave
them no
possibility
is
for after
repentance or amendment
indeed the prohibition
so clear, so express, so plain, that
whenever we
meet
in
Church history with something

not wheat
that looks like the carrying into
execution this proposal of the servants,

that
it
we may
is
suspect, as Bengel says,

to root out " Lest while ye gather
is
making war on
vp also
the
tares,
but tares seeking
wheat.
The
reason of the prohibition
given
up
the tares, ye root
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;:}:

*
or
it
might happen through the misit
Menken
" This question,'
Whence then hnth
fares
?' is
the result of our
first
study of Church history, and remains afterwards the motto of Church history, and the
riddle whicii should be solved by help of a faithful history
;
instead of which,
many
so-
called
Church historians [authors of Ancient Christianity, and the like], ignorant of the purpose and of the hidden glory of the Church, have their pleasure in the tares, and
imagine themselres wonderfully wise and useful, when out of Church history, which
to be the history
ought
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
ignorant world."
truth
but at the expense of the
Church would
ei
gratify a proud
and
+ Augustine {Quast. ex Matth., qu.
12)
Potest
suboriri
voluntas, ut tales
:
homines de rebus humanis
auferat,
si
aliquam teniporis habcat facultatem
sed utriirn
facere debeal, jusiitiam Dei consulit, utrCim hoc ei prwcipiat vcl permittat, et hoc offi-
cium esse hominem

X
velit.
Jerome
Monemur, ne
cilo
amputemus
fratreni
quia
fieri
potest, ut
ille,
qui
hodie noxio depravatuB ait dogniate, eras resipiscat, et defendere incipiat veritatem.
THE TARES,
take of the servants, who, with the best intentions, should
fail
81
to distin-
guish between these and those, leaving the tares and uprooting the
wheat.
It is
only the Lord himself, the Searcher of hearts,
who with
absolute certainty " knoweth

positors,
them
that are his."
and those who,

lest
in earlier times,
wrote in
But the Romish exthe interests of Rome,
in these words, "
ye root up the wheat with them,^^ find a loophole

prohibition itself.
whereby they may escape the

the prohibition
is
Thus Aquinas
says,
only binding,
when
there exists this danger of pluck;*
ing up the wheat together with the tares
and Maldonatus, that
in
each particular case the householder
is to
judge whether there be such

be put, " Wilt thou that
his exposition with
ive
danger or no.
The
Pope, he adds,
is
is
now, the representative of the

to
householder, and to him the question
go and gather up
exhortation to
all
the tares
and he concludes
an
Catholic princes, that they imitate the zeal of these
servants, and rather, like them, need to have their eagerness restrained,
than require to be urged on

heretics.
to
the task of rooting out heresies and
The householder proceeds

be plucked up, but that
tliis
to
is
declare
not that the tares shall never
not the time, and they not the doers.
" Let both grow together until

antichristian power,
the harvest."
In these words the true doc-
trine concerning Antichrist, not indeed the personal Antichrist, but the
is
implicitly declared.
to
is
We
to
learn that evil
is not,
as so
many dream, gradually

Church, but
is to
wane and
ever
to
disappear before good, the

itself
woi-ld before the
develop
as on the other side, good
unfold itself
more fully, even more mightily also. more and

its
Thus
it
will
go on,
in
till
at last
they stand face to face, each in

;
highest
manifestation,
the
persons of Christ and of Antichrist
on the one
and good,
hand, an incarnate God, on the other, the

all
till
man
in to
whom
grow,
the fulness of
evil
Satanic power will dwell bodily.
Both are
they come
full
to
an head,
till
they are ripe, one for destruction, and the they are to grow together
;
other for
salvation.
And
the visible
Church
is to
have
its
intermixture of good and bad until the end of time,

fact of the
and by consequence that the
bad being found mingled with

it,
the good will in no wise justify a separation from
or an attempt to set
up a
*
little
Church of our own.f

Theol., 2^ 'i^, qu.
Where men
Cum
metus
iste
will attempt this, besides
Summa
10
non
subest,
non doimiat
Ecclesifuerit,
severitas disciplince.
t
Calvin's words are excellent
Est enim
puritas.
Iijec
periculosa tentatio,
nuUam
am
in
putare, ubi
non appareat perfecta

erit, ut,
Nam
aliis
quicunque
liac
occupatus
necesse tandem
discessione ab
omnibus
facta, solus sibi

instituat.
sanctus videatur
mundo, aut peculiarem sectam cum paucis hypocritis

?
Quid ergo causae
habuit Paulus cur Ecclesiam Dei Corinthi agnosceret
nempe
quia Evangelii doctri-
82
THE TARES.
command,
it
it is
the guilt of transgressing a plain

fatal effects
not difficult to see
what
it
on their
own
spiritual life
must have, what darkness
must bring upon them, and into what a snare of pride it must cast them. For while even in the best of men there is the same intermixture of good
and
evil as there is
outwardly in the Church, such conduct will

eyes both
to the evil
little
infalis
libly lead a
man
to the wilful shutting his
which
in himself,
and in the
schismatical body which he will then call
the Church, since only so the attempt will even
seem
to
be successful.
Thus Augustine
succeeded,
succeeded,
often appeals to the
fact that
the Donalists had not
that they themselves

in
would not dare to assert that they had forming what should even externally appear a pure combe,
munion
and since by their own acknowledgment there might
and
probably were, hypocrites and concealed ungodly
among
lii.
themselves, this
as inapplicable
was enough
to
to
render
all
such passages as
Isai.
1,
them
as the Catholic
strength of this their

intolerable pride and
Church in its present condition. And yet on the assumed purity, they displayed a spirit of the most
presumptuous uncharitableness towards the Church
from which they had separated.

to all
And
the
same
sins cleave
more or
less
schismatical
bodies,
which, under plea of a purer communion,

:*
it
have divided from the Church Catholic

its
is
the smallest of these, from the most select and purest,
very smallness persuading
itself that
being generally the most guilty in
this matter.
Not
to
that there
;
is
not
something
in
every
man which
Nay,
this
it
inclines zeal
him
is
to the error
every young
Christian in the time of his
first
tempted
little
be somewhat of a
Donatist in
spirit.
would argue
to
love or holy earnestness

his
in him, if he
had not
longing
see the
Church of
is
Saviour a
that the
glorious
Church without
time
spot
or wrinkle.
in itself
it is,
But he must learn

yet
not to find
its
desire, righteous
and holy as
;
fulfilment
in this present evil
that on the contrary,
the suffering from false

is
brethren
is
one of the pressures upon him, which
meant
to
wring out
appear,
from him a more earnest prayer that the kingdom of God
may
nam, baptismum, coenam Domini, quibus symbolis

cernebat.
censeri debet Ecclesia,
apud eo3
* See Augnsiine
{Coll.
Carth., d. 3,
c.
9) for
an extraordinary instance of
this
pride on the part of the Donatist adversaries of the Church.
t Fuller (Holy Slate, b. 5,
c.
2) enumerates
si.x
reasons
why
:
grace wicked
men
should be inseparably mingled with godly
"
in the
kingdom of
hy-
First, because
;
pocrites can never be severed but by
cause
tians,
if
men
should
make
the
him that can search the heart secondly, beseparation, weak Christians would be counted no Chrisa load of imperfections,
for all
;
and those who have a grain of grace under

;
would be count-
ed reprobates
thirdly, because
God's vessels of honour
eternity, not as yet
appearing, but wallowing in sin, would be
made castaways
fourthly, because
God
THE TARES.
He
learns that
all
83
self-willed
and impatient attempts, such as have been
repeated again and again, to anticipate that perfect
communion of
saints
are indeed works of the flesh, and that however well they
at the first,
may
promise
no blessing will
rest
upon them, nor
will they for long
even
appear
to
be attended with success.*

in
There are some

discipline in the
modern times who,

to
in fear lest
arguments should
to
be drawn from this parable to the prejudice of attempts
revive stricter
Church, have sought

it,f
escape the cogency of the argu-
ments drawn from

is
observing that incur Lord's explanation no notice
taken of the proposal
made by
the servants, (ver. 28,) nor yet of the
householder's reply to that proposal, (ver. 29.)

that this parable
is
They
argue, therefore,
not instructive of
to be,
of an heavenly Lord ought

will be the case in the
Church
what the conduct of the servants but merely prophetic of what generally that this offer of the servants is merely
for the master's reply,
brought in
to
afford
an opportunity
purpose
and that of
that the latter is the only significant portion.
But
it is
clear that
when
Christ asserts that
it is
his
to
make
a complete and solemn sepa-
ration at the end, he implicitly forbids, not the exercise in the
mean time
of a godly discipline, not, where that has become necessary, absolute

exclusion from Church-fellowship
final irrevocable separation, of
himself.:}:
but
till
any attempts
to anticipate the
which he has reserved the execution
to
That
shall not take place
the end of the present dispen-
by the mixture of the wicked with the godly

his servants
;
will try the watchfulness
and patience of
fifthly,
because thereby he will bestow
many
;
favours on the wicked, to
clear his justice
and render them the more inexcusable

will
lastly,
because the mixture of
the
wicked grieving the godly,
make them
:
the
more
heartily pray for the
day
of judgment." * Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. xcix. 1) asks
Quo
?
se separaturus est Christianus ut
non gemat
inter falsos fratres?
Solitudines petat
sequunturscandala.
patiatur
?
Separaturus est
se qui bene proficit, ut nullum

proficeret
omnino hominem
pati, convincitur,
quid
si
et
ipsum antequam
vuli pati, eo ipso
nemo
vellet pati
Si ergo quia proficit, nullum
hominem
?
quo non vult aliquem hominem

pedes
sage
tibi videris
quod non
profecerit.
An
quia veloces
habuisse ad transeundem, praecisurus es pontem
The
whole pas-
is
too long to quote, but deeply instructive concerning the vanity of every attempt
to found a
Church on a subjective instead of an
objective
basis,
on the personal
holi-
ness of the members, instead of recognizing one there to be founded for us, where the
pure word of
God
to
1.
is
preached, and the sacraments administered by those
who
are duly
commissioned
{Con. Cresc,
these offices.
c.
How
admirable again are his words in another place

;
3,
35)
Fugio paleam ne hoc sim
non aream, ne
nihil
sim
and
see also Serm., 164, c. 7, 8.

t Sttriger, in the
tic,
Evang. Kirch.
41)
Zeit., 1833,
and an able writer
in the British Cri-
No. 52,
t
p.
385.
c.
:
TertuUian {Apol.,
Qui semel aeternum judicium destinavit post
seculi
finem, non precipitat discretionem quae est conditio judicii, ante seculi finem.
84
sation ;*
till
THE TARES.
the
will the
to
not time of the harvest f householder com and then he give command not these servants, but the reapers, the be gathered out from among the wheat. Not the end of the world Son of man send servants nor even then earthly ministering but " and
mand,
will
the
to
that
tares
till
will the
forth his
his
servants,:}:
his angels,
they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and all lohich do iniquity" in the words of Zephaniah (i. 3,) " the stumbling-blocks
with the wicked."
The
The
20,
or
lot
of the tares
is
to
be gathered into bundles

Toiv
alojvcov, (so
|1
and consumed
moment
of the
<!vvTi\tia Tov aiiovos,

aiihv to
or avvT.
Heb.
ix. 26,) the
passing over from this
the coming, the juncture of the

(cat (r/cdrotif ,)
two
aeras, (see
Job xxiv.
i.
LXX.
fic^pi cvvTcXcias i/>tordj

ii.
the present, called aioiv fi'coTuf, (Gal.

aiiiv ipx^d/jcfo;
4,)
6 vvD aicjv (Tit.
12) =:
icdo-ôs ovto;,
ii.
with the future termed
(Mark
x.
30),
a'iuivci CTTCpônii/oi,
ii.
(EplieS.
is
7,) aUbv b //cXXoji/,
(Heb.
vi.
5)
= oiVouêk;
(1
I'l
^tcWovaa,
(Heb.
5).
The
two
phrase
equivalent to the riXn
tojv aidjvuv,
Cor. x. 11,) the ex-
tremities of the
aeras, the
end of the one and the commencement of the other.

v. 3, p.
t Bishop Horsley {Bill. Crit.,

the harvest, which are the
344,; distinguishes between the vintage and

the
two images under which

" The vintage
is
consummation of the present

mercy.
age are so commonly represented.
always an image of the season of

final
I
judgment, but the harvest of the ingathering of the objects of God's

not aware that a single unexceptionable instance
type of judgment.
the earth
is is to
is
am
is
be found, in which the harvest

thrust into the ripe harvest,
In Rev. xiv. 15, 16, the sickle

i.
and
reaped,
is
e.
the elect are gathered from the four winds of heaven.
The
wheat of God
gathered into his barn.

is
(Matt.
xiii.
30.)
After this reaping of the
earth the sickle
applied to the clusters of the vine, and they are cast into the great
winepress of the wrath of God.

13, the ripe harvest
is
(Rev. xiv. 18-20.)

i.
This
is
judgment.
fit
In Joel
iii.
the harvest of the vine,
e.
the grapes
for gathering, as
ap-
pears by the context.

the harvest,
is
In Jer.
Ii.
33, the act of threshing the corn upon the floor, not
It is true
the
image of judgment.
xiii.,) is
;
the burning of the tares in our
Sa-
viour's parable, (Matt,
work of judgment, and

it
of the time of harvest, previous
to the binding of the sheaves
but
is
an accidental adjunct of the business, not the
harvest
able
t
fit
itself."
It
may
be a question whether the

is
manner
in
which he makes our par-
into his
scheme
quite satisfactory.
erit
Augustine: Audes usurpare officium alienum, quod nee in messe

(with reference to 2 Tim.
ii.
And Cyprian
fringere
20, 21)
Nos operam demus

CtEterum
est.
et
tuum ? quantum
possumus, laboremus, ut vas aureum et argenteum simus.
fictilia
vasa con-
Domino
soli
concessum
est, cui et virga ferrea
data
Jerome {Adv. Lucif.)

de hominibus judi-
Nemo
care.
potest Christi palmani sibi assumere,
Si
jam mundata
aKavSaXa.
est Ecclesia, quid
nemo ante diem judicii Domino reservamus 1
Ta
J^KdnSaXov (in its older form anaviaXriQpuv) is that part of a trap or

is
snare on which the bait
placed, and which being touched by the animal, gives

tight
;
way,
and causes the snare

Testament,
it
to
draw suddenly
then, generally, a snare.
In the
New
it
is
transferred to spiritual things,
and includes whatever, entangling as

therefore
were men's
its
feet,
it
might cause them

is
to fall
rayi'j
it is
nfidaKOftfta.
On
account of
derivation
nearly allied to
and
Oi'ipu,
and we
find
it
used together with
them, Rom.
II
xi. 9.
Augustine explains
this
something
in the
fashion of Dante's hell, in which
the
THE TARES.
with
fire, vi.
5
end
7,)
.
as of the land bearing thorns and briars the

8.)
is to
be burned.
sons of
(Heb.
In David's words
all
(2
Sam.
xxiii, 6,
"
The
Belial shall be
of tbem as thorns thrust
away
and they shall
be utterly burned with fire,"
or, as it is here expressed, the angels " shall cast them into the furnace of fire." Elsewhere (Mark ix. 4348,) the woe of hell is described under an image borrowed from the
valley of the children of Hinnom, where carcases were cast out that
from time
of
all
to
time were consumed with
fire
here from that most fearful
forms of punishment, one not indeed in use among the Jews, for
look at David's act (2
we must
Sam.
xii.
31) as an excess of severity,

is,
but one with which they were not unacquainted, that
death by
fire.
(Gen. xxxviii. 24.)
It
was
in use
among
the Chaldfeans, (Jer. xxix.
22
Dan.
iii.
6,)
and in the Jewish

cast
tradition,
which
is
probably of great
antiquity,
Nimrod
Abraham
and
in
into a furnace of fire, for refusing to
worship his
false gods,
furnaces with a like object in Persia.*

fire
modern times Chardin makes mention of That dreadful punishment by
supplies the image here, and doing so,
makes exceedingly impro-
bable the explanation which some have given of the gnashing, which they
rather understand as a chattering, of the teeth,
that
it is
the expression
of the pain arising from excessive
cold,"j"
so that they imagine a kind of
Dantean
hell,
with alterations of cold and heat, alike unendurable.

are evidently no
vii.
the wailing and gnashing of teeth

sions of rage and impatience, (Acts
But more than expres-
54,) under the sense of intoler-
able pain and unutterable loss.
But
after
it
has been thus done with the wicked, " then shall the
righteous shine forth^ as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
As
wicked of one kind are gathered into one place

says
dis,
:
for
on
this gathering into bundles, he
Hoc est, rapaces cum rapacibus, adulteros cum adulteris, homicidas cum homicifures cum furibus, derisores cum derisoribus, similes cum similibus.
s.
:
* Voy. en Perse, Langles' ed., v. 6, p. 118. t See SuicER,

to v. I3pvyn6g,
which some make
= Tpm/jos
1.
djoircoi',
;
but
it is
simpler
say with Bernard

:
Fletus ex dolore, stridor dentium ex furore
for in Cyprian's
words (Ad Demet.)

Loc. TAeoZZ.,
X
Erit tunc sine fructu pcenitentiaj dolor, poenae inanis ploratio, et
inefficax deprecatio.
1.
See Ambrose, Exp. in Luc,

46.
full
7, c.
205, 206, and Gerhard,
31,
c. 6,
'EK\an\pov(Tiv, in
which
differt
force
is to
be given to the preposition.
Schleusner
indeed says,
Paritm
a simplici Hermas,
vorstrahlen, sich plotzlich in aller
Passow very Herrlichkeit hervorthun. There

Xu/^ttw,
but
difi'erently,
Her-
are
two
beautiful
similitudes in the Shepherd of
(1.3,
sim.3 and
4,)
is
engaged
in setting forth the
same
truth,
all
though under a different image.

which, while
all
it is
;
The Seer
shown
and
in the first a
number
of trees,
fore to
winter, are alike without their kaves, and seeming thereis
him
alike
dead
and he
told that as the dry
the green trees are not
distinguishable from one another in the winter, while all alike are leafless and bare, so
86
fire
THE TARES.
was
is
the element of the dark and cruel
kingdom of
hell, so
is
light
of the pure heavenly kingdom.*
Then,
when
the dark hindering ele-
ment
iii.
removed, shall
this
it,
element of light which was before struggling
with and obstructed by

3
;
come
forth
in its
full
brightness. (See Col.
Rom.
:
viii.
18
Prov. xxv. 4, 5.)
A
to
glory shall be revealed in
the saints
it
shall not
merely be brought
them, and added from with-
out
but rather a glory which they before had, but which did not before
appear, shall burst forth and
evidently
show
itself
openly, as did the
Lord's hidden glory once in the days of his

Transfiguration.
flesh, at the
moment of
his
That
shall be the
forth
of
God they away (Dan.

;
shall shine
xii.
day of the manifestation of the sons as the sun when the clouds are rolled
by
all
3;) they shall evidently appear and be acknowledged ; as the children of light, of that God who is " the Father of
i.
Lights.*'! (Jam.
17.)
And
then,
but not
till
then, shall be
accom-
plished those glorious prophecies
Testament,
" Henceforth
"
which are
so often repeated in the
Old
there shall no
(Isai.
Iii.
more come
1.)
into thee the un-
circumcised and the unclean."
" In that day there shall

(Zech.
21.)
be no more the Canaanile in the house of the Lord of Hosts."

xiv. 21.)
Thy
people
;
also shall
be
all
righteous."
(Isai. Ix.
;
Compare
iii.
Isai.
xxxv. 8
Joel
iii.
17
Ezek. xxxvii. 21-27
Zeph.
13.
neither in the present age are the just from sinners.

the trees, but
In the second, he
is
again shown
still
now some
shall
it
of them are putting forth leaves, while others are
remain-
ing bare.
Thus
it
be in the future age, which for the just shall be a summer, and
life
they shall be declared openly, while their hidden

the sinners
shall
still
shall then manifest itself; but for

fruit, shall
be winter, and they, remaining without leaf or

for
as
dry w'jod be cut
down
the burning.
The resemblance between

is
these visions
in
and
singulaily beautiful passages in Augustine, (Enarr. in Ps. xxxvi. 2,

13,)
and
Ps.
cxlviii.
where exactly the same image

is
is
used,
very remarkable
5,)
and again he says of

;
the Christian as he
rit
now, (In Ep. Joh. Tract.

gloria.
Gloria ejus occulta est

;
cilm vene-
Dominus, tunc apparebit
Viget enim, sed adhuc in hyeme
viget radix, sed
quasi aridi sunt rami.
Intus est medulla quae viget, intus sunt folia arborum, intus
fructus: sed aestatem expectant.
Compare Minucius Felix

et redeat
?
(p.
329,ed. Ouzel.): Ita
corpus in secuio ut arbores in hibemo, occultant virorem ariditate mentitA.

tinas ut cruda
adhuc hieme reviviscat
Quid fesExpectandum nobis ctiam corporis
ver
est.
It is
exactly thus that in the
Mahommedan
fire.
filii
Theology, the good angels are com-
pact of light, and the evil ones of

t
Calvin
Insignis consoiatio, quod
Dei qui imnc vel squalore
obsiti jacent, vel

cocio, et
latent nullo in pretio, vel cussis
etiam probris cooperti sunt, tunc quasi sereno

:
dis-
omnibus
nebulis, verc et ad liquidum semel conspicui fulgebunt
suos in sublime
attollet l''ilius Dei, et

is
omnem
fulig'ncm absterget, qua nunc

:
eorum
fulgor obruitur.
It
the saying of a Jewish expositor of Ps. Ixxii.

ita
Quemadmodilm
Sol et
Luna illuminant
hoc seculum,
futurum est ut
justi illuminent
seculum futurum.
THE MUSTARD SEED.
97
PARABLE
III,
THE MUSTARD SEED.

Matt.
xiii.
31, 32
Mark
iv.
30-32
Luke
xiii.
18, 19.
This parable, and the one

repetitions of the
that follows,
;
would seem,
at first sight,
merely
other
same
truth
but here, as in every other case, upon
nearer inspection, essential differences reveal themselves.
The
it
onhe Leaven,
itself
is
concerning the kingdom of God, which " cometh not

is
with observation ;" this
concerning that same kingdom as

:
displays
openly, and cannot be hid
that declares the intensive, this the ex-
tensive,
development of the Gospel.
That
sets forth
the
power and
it,
action of the
truth on the world brought in contact with

to
power of the truth

tree shut
develop itself from within
itself,
how
this the
it is
as the
up within the seed, which will unfold itself according to the inward law of its own being. Both have this in common, that they describe the small and slight beginnings, the gradual progress, and the final
marvellous increase of the Church,

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

fill
become a great mountain, and

* traces finely
whole earth.
(Dan.
ii.
34, 35.)
Chrysostom
all thai
;
the con-
nexion between this parable, and
has gone before. In the parable
of the Sower, the discides had heard that three parts of the seed sown
perished, and only a fourth part prospered
again they had heard in that
of the Tares, and of the further hinderances which beset even this part
that
remained
lest
then they should be tempted quite to lose heart and

for their
to despair, the
Lord spake these two parables

beginnings
its
encouragement.
My kingdom,
he would say, will survive these losses, and surmount these

its first
hinderances, until, small as a mighty tree,

fill
may
appear,
it
will, like
the earth with
branches,
like potent
leaven,
diffuse its influence
through
all
the world.
The comparison which he

to that of a tree,
uses, likening the growth of his kingdom was one with which many of his hearers may have been
already familiar from the Scriptures of the Old Testament.

*
The growth
with which the
So
also Lyser, with

is
more immediate reference
to
sit
the queslion
parable
introdnced in St.
Mark
(iv.
30)
Cum
ea
Evangelii sors, ut tarn multa

fructus aliquis
ejus fructum impediant, et

sperari possit, quid
eidem Satanas
dicemus
?
tot
modis
insidietur, ut vix
de
illo
poteritne in rerum natura aliquid inveniri, quod

?
ejus exilitatem excusare, illudque
contemptu vindicare queat
gg
of a worldly kingdom
iv.
TEE MUSTARD SEED.
had been set forth under this image, (Dan. 10-12; Ezek. xxxi. 3-9,)* that also of the kingdom of God. (Ezek. X. vii. 22-24; Ps. Ixxx. 8.)t But why, it may be asked, comparison is a mustard-tree $ here chosen as that with which the
shall be
made
its
Many
nobler plants, as the vine, or taller trees, as
the cedar, might have been
named.
but
But
this is chosen, not

to the
with referproportion
ence
to
ultimate greatness,
with reference
the
this
between
the
the
smallness of the seed and

itself
greatness of the plant

is
which unfolds Lord

greatness
from thence.
attention,
For
not
its
the
point
to
which
but
its
calls especial
greatness in
itself,
when compared with
the seed from
whence
it
springs;
since
what he desired
to set before his disciples

it
was
not merely that his kingits
dom
and
should be glorious, but that

slight
in
should be glorious, despite
wAk
and
and despised beginnings.
Nor, indeed, was the mustard seed,

its
though
appearance so
trivial,
altogether without
It
significance
acknowledged worth in antiquity.

gorean symbols,^
it
ranked among the nobler Pytha-
was esteemed to possess medicinal virtues against of venomous creatures, and against poisons, and was used as a the bites Nor can I, with a modern interpreter, find remedy in many diseases.
||
* See Havernick, Comm.
iib.
Daniel, p. 139.
t In a striking poem, found in the
Appendix
to
Fell's Cyprian, the growth of the

is
kingdom of God, under
the figure of that of a tree,

all
beautifully set forth.

to
The
reli-
gious reverence with which
antiquity
p.
was accustomed
look upon trees (see CrSuleft
zer's Sijinbolik, third edit. v. 4,

X
621,) should not here be
out of mind.
The most
accurate inquiries of naturalists would seem to point out as the mus-
tard-tree of this parable, not that
which goes by
this
name
in
Western Europe, but

So Dr. Lindley
in
the
his
Salvadora Persica, commonly called in Syria now, kharaal.
Flora Jiidica
and see
in the
Dr. Royle, read before the this khardal, say, " It has a pleasant, though a strongly aromatic taste, exactly re-
AthencEum of March 23, 1844, an interesting paper by Captains Irby and Mangles, describing Asiatic Society.
irritability
sembling mustard, and

nose and eyes."
if
taken in any quantity, produces a similar
of the
There
is
on the other hand a learned discussion
in the
;
Gentleman's
Magazine, June 1844,

shaking them.
Plin., //. N.,
II
calling in question Dr. Royle's conclusions
but not seriously
1.
20,
c.
87.
it
Pliny (Ibid.)
Plautus applies to
a harder epithet, sinapis sfcZeraâ, because

;
of
its
sharpness which draws tears from the eyes
and Columella's
sinapis.
is
line is often
quoted
Seque lacessenti fletum factura

Yet
but
this too
may
!.
be a part of
its
fitness here.
For neither
the Gospel all sweets,

rhv xpvxfjv.
may
be compared to the mustard seed, entiuKvovaav

5.)
:
uKpeXiixois
(Clem.
Alex., Strom.,
The comparison
Sicut sinapis
is
carried out to greater length in the homily of
an uncertain author
trahimur, ad lacrimas permovemur, et ipsam salubritatem corporis nostri

fletu austeritatis
granum cJim sumimus, vultu contristamur, fronte concum quodam

ita
accipimus,
ergo et ciim
fidei
Christianas
mandata
et
percipi-
mus, contristamur animo, afHigimur corpore, ad lacrimas permovemur,
ipsam salu-
THE MUSTARD SEED.

anything so very ridiculous in
this
tlie
89
supposition, that \he Saviour chose

it
seed on account of further qualities which
possessed, that gave
it
a peculiar aptness to illustrate the truth which he had in hand.

its
Its heat,
its
fiery vigour, the fact that only through being bruised
it
gives out
best virtues, and all this under so insignificant an appearance,
and
in so
small a compass,
may
well have
moved him
to select this
image under
which
and
to
to set forth the destinies
of the word of the kingdom,

to the to
of
the doc-
trine of a crucified
Redeemer, which, though
Greeks
foolishness,
the
Jews a stumbling-block, should prove
them
that believed
"the power of God unto salvation.''*
Yet
is it
not Christ's doctrine merely, nor yet even the

is
Church which he
planted upon earth, that
signified
seed."!"
by
this grain
of mustard seed.
He
is
himself the grain of mustard
Church, was originally enclosed

ing as
in
For the kingdom of heaven, or the him, and from him unfolded itself, havit
much
oneness of
life
with him as the tree with the seed in which
was originally shut up, and out of which it grew. He is at once the sower and the seed sown for by a free act of his own will, he gave himself to that as he himself death, whereby he became the author of life unto many
:
;:}:
had
said, "
;
Except
if
it
a corn of
it
wheat
fall into
the
ground and
fruit."
die,
it
abideth
24.)
alone
but
die,
bringeth forth
this
much
(John
;
And
tern
the field in
which he sowed
fletu
seed was the world
"
xii.
hisjield,"
nostram cum quodam
ac moerore consequimur.
Moreover, thnt
its
active
energj',
which
ill
;
in these quotations is noted, will

it
make
it
as apt an
emblem
of the good
as the
and as such
was
sent
used, according to Eastern tradition, by Alexander the
Great;
for
when Darius
his soldiers,
him a
barrel full of sesame, to acquaint

full
him with the

Escander.)
number of
he sent a bag
of mustard seed in return, to indicate the

s. v.
active, fiery, biting courage of his.
(D'Hekbelot, Biblioth. Orient.,
* Thus the author of a Sermon which as been attributed to Augustine {Serm. 87, Appendix) and to Ambrose Sicut enim granum sinapis prima fronte speciei suae est
:
parvum,
vile,
despectum, non saporem prsestans, non odorem circumferens, non indi:
cans suavitatem
at ubi teri caeperit, statim
odorem suum
fundit,
acrimoniam exhibet,
cibum ilammei saporis exhalat,

frivolis [granis]
et tanto fervoris calore succendiiur, ut fuisse
mirum
sit
in tarn
tantum ignem
conclusum,
tenuis,
ita
ergo et fides
Christiana
prima fronte videtur esse parva,
vilis, et
superbiam praeferens, non gratiam subministrans.

ty in the occasion
non potentiam suam ostendens, non There is great fitness and beau-
this sermon was preached, namely, the martyrdom of manner of whose death is well known. There is much also that is instructive, with somewhat merely fanciful, in the remarks which Ambrose (Exp. in Luc. 1. 7, c. 176-186) makes on this parable.
upon which
St. Laurentius, the
t See a fragment of Irenaeus
(p.
347, Bened.
ed.,)
who
also notes
how
the mustard
seed was selected for
its fiery
1.
and austere
qualities (rd nvppaKig Kal avarripov).
So Ter-
TULLiAN, Adv.
X
Marc,
4, c. 30.
this.
:
Early Christian art had a true insight into

p.
Didron, (Iconographie Chreti-
enne,
208,) describes this as a frequent symbol
Le
Christ dans
un tombeau
de
sa bouche sort
un
arbre, sur les branches duquel sent les apotres.
90
or, as St.
THE MUSTARD SEED.

Luke
expresses
it,
(xiii. 19,)
" his garden ;" for the world was

it,
made
by him, and when he
came unto
" he
is
came unto
his
own."
This seed when cast
into the
ground
" the least of all seeds,"
words which have often perplexed interpreters, as there are many seeds,
as of poppy or rue, that are smaller
know that Small as a grain of mustard-seed, was a proverbial expression among the Jews * for something The Lord, in his popular (See Luke xvii. 6.) exceedingly minute.
worth making
;
yet difficulties of this kind are not
it is
sufficient to
teaching, adhered to the popular language.

thinof
To
?
pass on then to the
signified
What,
less of
to the
eye of
flesh,
could be less magnificent,
what could have
promise than the commencements of the king-
dom
of
God
in the person of the

;
Son of man
for
He grew up
in a distant
and despised province
till
his thirtieth year, did not
emerge from the

in the neigh;
bosom of
his family,
then taught
two or three years
bourincr towns and villages, and occasionally at Jerusalem
made
a few
converts, chiefly
among
the poor and unlearned
and then, falling into
the hands of his enemies, without an attempt on his
own
part or his
:
fol-
lowers
to release
him, died the shameful death of the cross
such, and
so slight,
in
in this the
was the commencement of the universal kingdom of God. For kingdom of God differs from the great schemes of this world ;
have a proud beginning, a shameful and a miserable end
first
^these last
towers of Babel, which at

of God, and most of
threaten to be as high as heaven, but end

;
being a deserted and 'formless heap of slime and bricks

all his
but the works
great work, his Church, have a slight and
unobserved beginning, with gradual increase and a glorious consummation.
So
is it
with his kingdom in the world

heart.
so
is it
with his kingdom

there too, like
a
in
every single
The word
little,
of Christ falls
slight
{Treat
mustard seed, promising

and marvellous results.^
but issuing, if allowed to grow, in

all
That which was the smallest of

Oh my
* So also in the Coran {Sur. 31)

or bad, though
it
son, verily every matter, whether good
be of the weight of a grain of mustard seed, and he hidden in a rock,
or in the heavens, or in the eafth, t Jerome,

in this respect,
God
will bring the
same
to light.
{Comm.
in Matth. in loc.) has a striking passage noting the difference

:
between the Gospel and every system of human philosophy

little,
the last
:
promising
much and performing
the other promising
little
and performing much
Proedicatio Evangelii
minima est omnibus disciplinis. Ad priniam quippe doctrinara, fidem non habet veritatis, hominem Deum, Deum mortuum, et scandalum crucis praedicans.
Confer hujuscemodi doctrinam dogmatibus Philosophorum, et
libris
sit
eorum,
caeteris
splcndori eloquentiae, et composiiioni
sermonum,
ilia
et
videbis quanto
minor
seminibus sementis Evangelii.

nihil vitale demonstrat, sed
Sed
cum
creverit, nihil
et
mordax,
nihil
vividum,
totum flaccidum,marcidumque,
moUitum
ebullit in olera
et in herbas quae cit6 arescunt et corruunt.
Haec autem praedicatio quae parva vide-
batur in principio,
cum
vel
in
anima
credentis, vel in toto
mundo
sata, fuerit,
non
x8urgit in olera, sed crescit in arborem.
THE MUSTARD SEED.

seeds,* "
91
tree,
It is
when it is grown, it is
the greatest
among herbs, and becometh a

in the branches thereof."
so that the birds of the air come
and lodge
to
well
known
that in hot countries, as in Judsea, the mustard-tree attains

it is
a size which
never known
reach in our colder latitudes, someto
times so great as to allow a

this,
man
climb up into
;"j"
its
branches, though
indeed,
is
mentioned as a remarkable thing

in Chili
or to ride on horse-
back under them, as a traveller
mentions that he has done.

that
And, on
this
passage, Maldonatus relates,

its
even in Spain he has

:
himself seen great ovens heated with
branches
he mentions as well
that birds are exceedingly partial to the seed, so that
when
it is
advanc-
ing
to ripeness,
its
he has often seen them lighting in very great numbers

to sustain the
on
boughs, which, however, were strong enough
weight
without being broken.
This
fact of the fondness of birds for the seeds,'
and the manner in which, therefore, they congregated in the branches, was probably familiar to our Lord's hearers also. They, too, had beheld them lodging in the branches of the tree, whose seed thus served them for meat, so that there must have been a singular liveliness in the image which the parable presented to their minds.
Neither need
for the
we suppose
eye
this last
circumstance introduced merely

it
purpose of completing the picture, and presenting
in a
more
lively
manner
to the
but rather, in the birds flocking to the boughs

it
of the mustard-tree
when
had grown great, and there finding shelter

it
and
food,
(Ezek.
xvii. 23,
" under
shall dwell all fowl of
every wing,")
we
are to recognize a prophecy of the refuge and defence that should be
for all
men
in the
Church
all
how
that multitudes should thither
make
their resort, finding their protection from worldly oppression, as well as
the satisfaction for
the needs and wants of their souls
;:}:
and proving
is
true the words of the son of Sirach, (xiv.
20, 26, 27,) " Blessed
the
* Kuinoel's
is
it
an inaccurate remark, that here inKporcpov

is
is
a comparative for a
its
superlative, since
the following ttuvtiov
which
justifies
and explains
is
use (see
Mark
iv.
32
John
x.
29
Ephes.
;
iii.
8)
I
if I
say that a
man
better than all

for
men,
I say, indeed, that he
is
the best
but
do not use a comparative

;
a superlative.
So neither
Virgil
Scelere ante alios
immanior omnes
nor the author of the old Latin

sanction.
to the
all
epitaph, in which these words occur:
Omnium feminarum
This would not
be worth observing, save as an example of the loose attribution

of ungrammatical forms, which
tion.
is
New
Testament,
a most serious hindrance to

p.
accurate interpreta-
(See Winer's Grammatik,
221.)
t LiGHTFooT, Hor. Heb., in loc.

i
Augustine (Serm. 44,
c.
2)
Crevit Ecclesia, crediderunt gentes, victi sunt ter-
rae
principes sub
nomine
Christi, ut essent victores in orbe terrarum.
Persequebantur
confugiunt
ante Christianos pro
idolis,
persequuntur idola propter Christum.

pressura, in
Omnes
ad auxilium
Ecclesiae, in
omni
omni
tribulatione sua.
Crevit illud
granum
sinapis, veniunt volatilia coeli, superbi saecuh, et acquiescunt sub ramis ejus.
92
THE LEAVEN.
that doth meditate good things in
man
Wisdom.
He
shall set his

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

"
by her Theo-
phylact concludes his exposition of the parable with this practical application
:
And
be thou also such a grain of mustard,

it
small, indeed, in
virtue,
appearance, for
but fervent,
becomes thee not to make a spectacle of thy and zealous, and energic, and armed to reprove."
PARABLE
IV.
THE LEAVEN.
Matthew
This parable
xiii.
33
Luke,
xiii.
20,
2L
kingdom of
relates also to the marvellous increase of the

its
God
but while the last set forth

its
outward
;
visible manifestation, this

its
it
declares
hidden mysterious working

itself,
and not merely
development
touches upon
from within
all sides.
but
its
influence on the world which
The mustard
it
seed does not for some while attract observasize,
tion, nor, till
has grown to a considerable

;
do the birds of the air
light
upon
its
branches
but the active working of the leaven has been

it
from the very beginning, from the moment that
was hidden
it is
in the
lump.
It
might indeed be said against
this or
any other scheme which

most
fre-
should expound the leaven in a favourable sense, that
quently used in the Scripture as the symbol of something

v.
evil.
(1 Cor.
Luke
ii.
xii. 1
Gal. v. 9.)
Tliis is
undoubtedly true, and being

xiii.
this,
it
was forbidden,
11
;
in the offerings 5,)
under the Law, (Exod.
3j
Lev.
Amosiv.
though not without an exception. (Lev.
xxiii.
The strict command to the people, that they should carefully put 17.) away every particle of leaven out of their houses, during the Passover
week,
needed
rests
on
this
view of
it
as evil
they were thus reminded that they
to put
away from
their hearts all
workings of malice and wick-
edness, if they would rightly keep the spiritual feast.*
When
leaven
is
See our Collect
for the
First
Sunday
after
Easter. The Jews termed
the fig-
mentum malum,
the
that in
man which
lusteth against the spirit,
and hinders him from

is
doing the things that he would, the leaven in the lump, and the reason
given in
book Sohar: Prava concupiscentia vocatur fermentum, quia parum ejus cor pervadit, et in tantum exturgescit, ut findatur pectus. (See Schoettgen's Hor. Heb.,
THE LEAVEN.
thus used in an evil sense,
those
its
93
to
tendencies to
make sour and

not,
corrupt are
is its
which come most prominently forward.
Yet, because such
most frequent use in Scripture, there needs

the parable, as Gurtler,* Teelman,-}-
therefore, to interpret
little
and also some

is
bands of mo-
dern
separatists:}:
it
(whose motive, of course,
obvious) have done, as
though
were a prophecy of the heresies and corruptions, which should

fact, a
mingle with and adulterate the pure doctrine of the Gospel,

it
were, in
as though prophecy of the workings of the future mystery of in-
iquity.
These expositors make the

its
Woman
is
to
be the apostate church,
which, with
ministers, they observe

xvii.
often represented
v.
under
this
image.
(Prov. ix. 13; Rev.
1; Zech.
7-11.)
The
last
of
these passages
Teelman
asserts to be
an exact parallel
to the
parable
before us.
said that at
If this interpretation were the true one, if it could be any time the whole Church was thus penetrated through
false
it
and through with the leaven of

ever have become unleavened again,
doctrine,
;
the
gates
it
of hell
would, indeed, have prevailed against
and from whence
should
it is
difficult to
understand.
But the unquestionable fact, that leaven is, in Scripture, most commonly the type of something false and corrupting, need not drive us into any such embarrassment. It was not, therefore, the less free to
use
ing,
it
in a
good sense.
In those other passages,
its
puffing up, disturb;
souring properties, were the prominent points of comparison
in
V.
1,
p.
:
597.)
The Romans had

Rom.
the
same
dislike to the use of leaven in
sacred
things
19.)
Farinam fermento imbutam attingere flamini
Diali fas
non
est.
:
(Gell. x. 15,
Plutarch (Quast.
109,) gives no doubt the true explanation

it
"
is
The
leav-
en
itself is
it
born from corruption, and corrupts the mass with which

to pass that lipToi KaOapol is used us
mingled."
Thus
comes
a^vnot.
So Jerome (Ep. 31)

ii.
gives the
reason
why honey was

nihil
veritatis.
forbidden in the Levitical offerings (Lev.

nihil
11)
Apud Deum enim

mordacis aliquid
ing, as the casting
nuptial Juno.
part, caused
voluptuosum,
tantum suave placet
nisi
quod in se habet
These omissions had doubtless the same symbolical meanof the gall
away
was
among
the
Romans
in the victims offered to the
It
the feehng of the unsuitableness of leaven in sacris which, in
the Latin
Church
to
contend so earnestly against the use of fermented
bread in the Eucharist, calling those

historical interest also
who
used
it,
Fermentaril, though there was an (See Augusti, Handh. d. Christl.
mingling in the question.
Archaol.yV. 2,
p.
662.)
* Syst. Theol. Prophet., p. 590.

t
Comm.
in
Luc. 16,
p.
59, seq.
Vitringa
by
J.
gives, with
first
great impartiality, two
entirely independent expositions of the Parable, taking in
the leaven in a good, then
an
I
evil sense,
but decides absolutely for neither.

xiii.,
Brief Exposition of Matthew
N. Darby, 1845,
p. 40.
He makes
upgrowth of
in the
same way
the parable of the mustard seed to be a prophecy of the
a proud world-hierarchy.
94
the present,
tie
its
THE LEAVEN.
warmth,*
its
penetrative energy, the power which a

its
lit-
of it has
to lend its
savor and
virtue to
much wherewith
it
comes
in contact.
The
great features of the figurative language of Scripture

;
remain no doubt fixed and unalterable

its
but
it is
not thus stereotyped in

to stand for
minor
details, so that
one figure needs always
one and
the
same thing. The devil is " a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour;" (1 Pet. v. 8 ;) yet this does not hinder the same title from
to Christ,
being applied
" 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.

Cyril
:(:
then certainly goes too
far,
:
parable in his mind,

is
when he says
and could scarcely have had this " Leaven, in the inspired writings,
Ignatius shows
always taken as the type of naughtiness and sin."
own application of the image, how it may be freely used, now in a good, now in a bad sense ; for warning against Judaizing 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 effects of learather by his
ven on meal present an analogy

they do also on the other,
that
its
to
something
evil in the spiritual world,

it
to
something good, as
to
is
universally agreed
effects
on bread are
render
it
more
tasteful, lighter,
and more
obvious
nourishing, and generally
more wholesome.
to
There
sense, that
is
no need, then,
take the parable in other than

diffusion,
to
its
it is
concerning the
Gospel
by the leaven we are

in
its
and not the corruptions, of the understand the word of the kingdom,
which Word,
seed, out of
highest sense, Christ himself was.

tree
As
the mustardall
which a mighty
is
was
to
grow, was the least of
seeds,
yet, at
so the leaven
also something apparently of slight account,
and
the
same
time,
mighty
in operation.
Thus,
too,
of Christ
shall see
"
He
hath no form nor comeliness, and
when we
it was said, him there is
no beauty that we should desire him;" but then presently again, " By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify many, ... and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;" (Isai. liii. 2, 11, 12 ;) and when
*
Zu/.;
from
fco),
as fermentum
lift
(=
fervimentum) from ferveo
leaven, in French
levain.from levare, to
t See
up.
c. 2)
:
Quod enim tam
distat
ab invicem,
.
quam
.
Christus et Diabolua?
leo, propter fortitudinem
Tamen
:
leo et Cliristus est appeliatus, et Diabolus.

Ille leo
lUe
leo,
ille
leo, propter feritatem.

c. 6.
ad vincendum
ille
ad nocendum.
\
Cf Serm.
10.
32,
Horn, raschal, 19.
AdMagnes.,
Cf.
Gregory Naz.,
^v/iri
(Orat. 36,
c.
90,)
who
says that Christ by

nous Iovtod ivdaai.
his Incarnation sanctified
men, uyaTrtp
ytvojitvoi
tw
iravri <pvpauaTi, xaX
THE LEAVEN.
96
he had communicated of his life and spirit to his apostles, they too, in their turn, poor and mean and unlearned as they were, became the salt
of the earth, the leaven of the world. For, in Chrysostom's
to the rest
;
words,
" that which spark when
is
it
once leavened becomes leaven
since as the
takes hold of wood,
makes
still
that
which
is
already kindled
it is
to transmit the flame,
and so seizes
upon more, thus
also with
the preaching of the word."*

Is
it
only a part of the suitable machinery of the parable, that the
kneading being proper to women, it should be here said, that it " a woman" who took the leaven, and hid it in the three measures was
act of
of meal
or
may we
Luke
look for something more in
it
than this
com-
parison with
xv. 8, the
woman who had

it
lost
and found her piece
of money,
is
may
suggest that the divine Wisdom, the Holy Spirit, which

is
the sanctifying power in humanity, (and

is
of that sanctifying that
the word
to this
it
here,)
may
be meant.
But
if it
be asked,
why
as a
woman,
is
may
In and
be replied that the organ of the Spirit's working

fitly
the
Church, which evidently would be most

image.
as he dwells in the Church, (Rev. xxii. 7,)
represented under this

:
through the Church the Spirit's work proceeds

is it
only
able to mingle a nobler
element in the mass of humanity,

answered. Because
to
leaven the world.

?
So again, why
perhaps be suf-
should three measures of meal be mentioned

ficiently
it
It
may
19
;
was
just so
much
vi.
as at one time
1
would
i.
be commonly mixed. (Gen.
xviii.
Judg.
Sam.
24.)'j"
Yet
it
may
be that
we
should attach a further significance

it
to this
numAu-
ber three.
Some
perceive in
allusion to the spread of the Gospel

:
through the three parts then known of the world

gustine, to the ultimate leavening of the whole
others again, as
human
race, derived from
the three sons of
Noah
which
is
nearly the same thing.

it
And
those
who, like Jerome and Ambrose,

of
spirit, soul,
ill
find in
a pledge of the sanctification

if indeed, as
and body, are not upon a different track,
has
to
not been
suggested, Shem, Japhet, and
Ham, do
indeed answer
these three elements, spirit, soul, and body, which together
make up
the
man
the
one or other element coming into predominance in the de-
scendants severally of the three.
But leaving
this,
we may observe how

lump
;
the leaven
is at
once different
it
from, and yet acting upon, the
for the
is
woman
took
from
a
else-
where
to
mingle
it
therein
and even such
the Gospel,
kingdom
not of this world, (John xviii. 36,) not the unfolding of any powers which
* InMatth., Horn. 46
discipuli,
see also Con. Ignaviam, Horn. 3.2.

spiritu
So Cajetan
Christi
prima regai caelorum membra,
penetriinmt corda hominum, crudaque
ac acerba ad maturitatem ac saporem
caelestis vitae
promoverunt.
îrpa.
t In the two last places, the Septuagint has
rpU
96
already existed in the world,
THE LEAVEN.
a kingdom not
vii.
rising as those other king-
doms " out of the earth," (Dan.

of Christ was a
17,) but a
the world from above, not a philosophy, but a Revelation.
new power brought into The Gospel

an old
all
new and quickening power

life
cast in the midst of
and dying world, a centre of

Survived, and
all
round which
the energies
which
;
which
itself
should awaken, might form and gather

its
by the help of which the world might renew

servable, that this leaven
is
youth.*
And
it
is
ob-
said not
its
merely
to
have been mingled with,
but hidden in the mass, on which

true renovation, that which
the outward
;
influence
was
to be exerted.
The
God
it
effects, is
ever thus fi'om the inward to

it
it
begins in the invisible spiritual world, though

yet
fails
ends not
there
for there beginning,
not to bring about, in good time,
a mighty change also in the outward and visible world. derfully exemplified in the early history of Christianity.
effectually hidden.
This was won-
The
a
leaven was
remarkable evidence of
all that
this is the entire
ignorance
which heathen writers betray of

the surface of society,
was going forward

merely
at the
little
below
the
manner
in
which they overlooked the mighty

first,
change which was preparing, and
this not
when
the
mustard-tree might well escape notice, but, with slight exceptions, even
to the very moment when the triumph of Christianity was at hand. The leaven was hidden, yet, by degrees, it made itself felt, till at length the whole Roman world was, more or less, leavened by it. Nor must we
up
forget, that the
mere external conversion of
that
whole world gives us a

to
very inadequate measure of the work which had

there
be done
besides this,
was
the eradication of the innumerable heathen practices and custheir fibres
toms and feelings which had enwoven and entwined

the very heart of society, a
round
the other, and which, in
work which lagged very considerably behind fact, was never thoroughly accomplished, till the
to pieces,
whole structure of
tonic
Roman society had gone

in its
and the new Teu-
framework had been erected
room.
while the leavening of the
But while much has thus been

*
* Augustine, in whose time the fading
effected,
away
of
ail
the glory of the ancient world

contritus, ut
wa8
daily
becoming more apparent, (mundus tanta rerum labe

to
etiam
speciem seductionis amlseril,) delighted

Christ under this aspect.
tute
contemplate and to present the coming of

;
Thus Serm. 81
Parum
tibi praestitit
Deus, quia in senec1

. . .
mundi
misit
tibi
Christum, ut tunc
te reficiat, te
fecit.
quando omnia deficiunt
Venit
ciim omnia veterascerent, et
novum
Res
facta, res condita, res peritura

;
jam vergebat
seni
in
occasam.
Necesse erat ut abundaret laboribus

tibi in
venit
ille,
et conso-
lari te inter labores, et
promittere
sempiternum quietem.
;
Noli adhaerere velle

senescit
mundo.et
nolle juvenescere in Christo,qui tibi dicit

aiihelitu senectulis.
Perit
mundus,
mun-
dus, deficit
mundus, laborat
Noli timere, renovabitur juventus tua
sicut aquils.
THE LEAVEN.
mass has never ceased
consider these words "
to
97
and we cannot
a prowill diffuse
go forward, yet the promise of the parable has

the
hitherto been realized only in a very imperfect measure,

tili
whole
is
leavened" as
;
less than
it
phecy of a
itself
final
all
complete triumph of Christianity

nations,
that
through
and purify and ennoble
all life.
And we may
its
also fairly see in these
words a promise and an assurance that the word

effectual
of
life,
received into any single heart, shall not there cease

till it
working,
has brought the whole
man
in
obedience to
it,
sanctifying
him wholly,
Jesus.*
It
so that
he shall be altogether a
new
creation in
its
Christ
shall claim
every region of man's being as

In
fact, the
own, and
make
itself felt
in all.
parable does nothing less than set

in its first act,
;
forth to us the
mystery of regeneration, both

is
which can
be but once, as the leaven
but once hidden
and also in the conse-
quent renewal by the Holy

leaven,
is
Spirit,
which, as the ulterior working of the
continual and progi'essive.
This side of the truth
is that
ex-
clusively brought out by
Hammond, who
thus paraphrases our Lord's
words
"
The Gospel
it is
hath such a secret invisible influence on the hearts

all
of men, to change them and affect them, and
the
actions that flow
from them, that
fitly
resembled
it
to
leaven, so mixed thoroughly with

it
the whole, that although
appeareth not in any part of

it."
visibly, yet
every part hath a tincture from
We
may
fitly
conclude, in the
is
words of St. Ambrose

the type of this
"
May
the
Holy Church, which

the
figured under
woman
in the Gospel,
whose meal are we, hide the Lord

till
Jesus in the
innermost places of our hearts,
warmth of
the
Divine wisdom penetrate into the most secret recesses of our souls."f
* Corn, a Lapide quotes from an earlier commentator
Dicit autem,
Donee
fer-
mentatem
ut totani
est
totum, quia charitas in mente nostra recondita eo usque crescere debet

in sui perfectionem
mentem
commutet, quod hie quidem inchoatur,
in future
vero
perficitur.
t Exp. in
Luc,
is
1.
7, c.
187.
Clemens of Alexandria
in very
iVjîJj
fj
(p.
694, Potter's ed.) gives
an admirable exposition of the parable, and

heaven, he says,
likened to leaven, on
few words.
The kingdom
of
tov
Adyov
cvvTOjios ovaa koi
Jwar/j,
ttjOoj
TtavTa TOV Kara&tâjievov kol ivTOi iaVTOv KTrjaa^tvov aiirnv, iTnKCKpv^jxtvwi re Koi dipavois
iavrfiv ?Axt(, Kai to ttSv avTOv (rioTrifia
ti's
tvorrira avvdyn.
98
THE HID TREASURE.
PARABLE
V.
THE HID TREASURE.

Matthew
xiii.
44.
The kingdom
thing
;
of
God
is
not merely a general,
it is
also an individual,
it is
not merely a tree overshadowing the earth, leaven leavening
man must have it for himself, and make it his own own will. He cannot be a Christian without knowing it. He may come under the shadow of this great tree, and He may dwell in a Christenpartake of many blessings of its shelter. dom which has been leavened, and so in a manner himself share in the
the world, but each
by a
distinct act
of his
universal leavening.
But more than
this is
needed, and more than this

will be a personal approprithis in these
in every elect soul will find place. ation of the benefit,
There
and we have the history of
two para-
bles *
which
follow.
those " without,"

disciples.
but
They were
spoken, not to the multitude, not to
within the house, and to the more immediate
These are addressed as having found the hid treasure f the pearl of price and are now warned of the surpassing worth of these, and that, for their sakes, all things are to be joyfully renounced. The second parable does not merely repeat what the first has said, but re;
peats
it
:
with a difference.
so that
The two
are each the
complement of the
of the rich treasures
other
under one or other, as finders either of the pearl or hid

be ranged
all
treasure,
may
who become partakers

these,
it
of the Gospel of Christ.

there must be
For
may
man,
be, are persons
who
feel that
some absolute good

and
for
in the possession of
which he
shall be blessed,
find the satisfaction of all his longings,
and who are,
* Origen
(Comm.
in Matth.) observes that these would

is
more
fitly
be called simili-
tudes (ojiouiaui) than parables, which name, he says,

ture
:
not given to them in the Scrip-
yet see ver. 53.
For a
series of these briefer parables as in use
among
the
Jews,
see Schoettgen's Hor. Heh., v. 1, pp. 83-85.

t 9^(Tovp(5f,
i.
e.
avvayoiyh
)(_()rijxa.Twv
KCKpvjtjitvr],
as an old
;
Lexicon explains
TiQr]jn
it.
Neither of the derivations greatly
commend
themselves
not
and avpov
= aunon
rum, the receptacle of gold, since the word anpov seems not so old as
Oijuaupdj itself,
and
that from riOnit' di aipiov, that put by for to-morrow, is artificial.

its
The Jurisconsult
Paulus gives
exstet
legal definition,
et
Thesaurus
est tarn vetus depositio pecuniiE, ut ejus
memoria,
Jam dominum non
habeat.
THE
therefore,
HID. TREASURE,
99
Such are
at the
seeking everywhere and inquiring for this good.
likened to the merchant that has distinctly set before himself the purpose
of seeking goodly pearls.
These are the fewest

is
in
number, but
for
same
life,
time, perhaps, the noblest converts to the truth.
Again, there are
others,
who do
to
not discover that there

is
an aim and a purpose

until the truth as
it
man's
Jesus,
that there
a truth for him at
all,
is in
is
revealed
them.
Such are likened
to the finder
of the hid treasure,

for
it,
who stumbled upon it unawares, neither expecting nor looking While the others knew that there was a good, and were looking for
discovery of the good
is
it.
the
itself is the first
thing that reveals
to
these that there
such
at all
whose
joy, therefore, as greater,
discovery of an unlooked-for treasure,

not.
being the
;
joy at the
is
expressed
that of the other,
parables thus
Thus Hammond, bringing out this distinction, paraphrases the two " The Gospel being by some not looked after, is yet some:
times met with by them, and becomes matter of infinite joy and desire to
them
and so
is
likened
fitly to
a treasure, which a
it,
man
for
finding casually
to get into his
in a field, hid again, or concealed
and then, designing

it.
possession, accounts no price he
can pay too dear
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

is in
to
merchant, which
pursuit of rich merchandise, and meeting with a

all his estate
jewel for his turn, lays out
upon
it."
The
trast
cases of
Jew and Gentile
will respectively exemplify the con;
between the Pearl and the Hid Treasure
though of course,
in the
case of the Jews, or the chiefest part of them, the example cannot be
carried through, as they, though seeking the pearl, having a zeal for
righteousness, yet,
when
the pearl of great price
was
offered to them,
were not willing

that pearl.
to sell all,
to
renounce their peculiar privileges, their
self-righteousness, and all else that they held dear, that they might
of them,
The Gentiles, on the contrary, came upon the treasure unawares.

him
not,
at
least the greater
buy number
them man.*
vita
Christ
was found of them

to
that sought
and the blessings of his Gospel revealed
who
before had not divined that there

Doctrina Evangelica quibusdam
vitae alterius
were such blessings

affulsit,
for
* Grotius
neque de Deo, neque de
emendandA, neque de spe

me.
Erant
et
quicquam cogitantibus, quales erant plerique in

:
gentibus externis, quibus illud vaticinium Paulus aptat
Inventus
sum non
quaerentibus
sapientiae studiosi inter Judaeos et alibi, qui veritatis cognoscendae de-
siderio
quodam tangebantur, quive Prophetam aliquem
aut ipsum etiam
Messiam
avidis
animis expectabant.
Priores respicit thesauri comparatio, posteriores ista de unione.

:
Bengel recognizes the sames distinction
Inventio thesauri non praesupponit to quaerere,
ut margaritae, quae percontatione inveniuntur.

p.
Alex. Knox, in his Eemains

effect.
(v. 1,
416, seq.), has very excellent remarks to the same
There
is
rather a coais
firmation of this in the forms which the two parables assume.
In this the treasure
100
THE HID TREASURE.

we might
instance Nathanael, as an example of the
truth found for
Or
again,
more
still
re-
ceptive nature,
of one who has the
him
striking example,
or a
more
the Samaritan
woman, (John
iv.)
of anything more than of lighting on the hid treasure,
who was thinking when she came to

cannot be a
total
draw water from

slumbered
the well.
Yet
in this character, there

;
absence of seeking
for the truth
only
it
is
a desire that has hitherto of the truth

to
it,
in the soul,
and displays
itself rather as a love
when
revealed, and at once a joyful and submissive
acquiescence
than in any active previous quest.

willingness to embrace
costs
it,
In both, there must be the
same
at all
when
it is
known, and
to hold
it
fast
and hazards.
On
the other hand,
we
have, perhaps, no such pic-
ture of a noble nature, seeking for the pearl of price, and not resting
till
he had found
;
it,
as that
which Augustine gives of himself
in his
Con-
fessions
though we also have

first
many more, such
as Justin Martyr's ac-
count of himself, in his
dialogue with Trypho,
when he
tells
how he
in vain
find-
had gone through the whole circle of Greek philosophy, seeking

for
something which would satisfy the longings of his soul, and never
till
ing what he wanted,
he found
it
in the
Gospel of Christ.
The circumstance which

rable,
supplies the
groundwork of
this first pa-
namely, the finding of a concealed treasure, must have been of

frequent occurrence in an insecure state of society, such as
much more
us.
in almost all ages has
been that of the East, than happily
it
can be with
writer on Oriental literature and customs, mentions that in the
East, on account of the frequent changes of dynasties, and the revolutions
which accompany them, many rich men divide

:
their goods into
three parts
port
;
one they employ
in
commerce, or
for their
it
necessary supto fly,
one they turn into jewels, which, should

witli
prove needful
could be easily carried
them
a third part they bury.

is
But while
is
they trust no one with the place where the treasure
buried, so
the
same, should they not return

lost to the living,
to the spot before their death,

xli. 8,) until,
as good as
(compare Jer.
sant, while he is digging his field, lights
upon
it.
by chance, a lucky peaSo that when we read

in
in Eastern tales,
how
man
to
has found a buried treasure, and,

great riches, this
is
is.
a mo-
ment, risen from poverty
in fact,
an occurrence
that not unfrequcntly happens, and
a natural consequence of the custravels continually bear wit-
toms of these people.*

the prominent circumstance
if the
Modern books of
:
"
The kingdom
same mould,
it
it
of heaven
is
like
unto treasure."
said,
Now
of
so that
other had been cast in the

is like
would have been
The kingdom
;"
heaven
unto a pearl
is
but not so,
ia
" like unto a
merchant-man
the person seeking
there at the centre of the spiritual picture, the thing found, here.
This
is
scarcely accidental.
* Richardson {Dissert, on the
Languages,
Jjc, of
Eastern Nations,
p.
180)
quoted
THE HID TREASURE.

ness to the universal belief In the existence of such hid treasures
that the traveller often finds great difficulty in
IQl
;
so
obtaining information
about antiquities, and
is
sometimes seriously inconvenienced, or even
the neighbouring inhabitants,
among ancient ruins, by the jealousy of who fear lest he is coming to carry away concealed hoards of wealth from among them, of which, by some means
endangered, in his researches
or other, he has got notice.

is,
Another evidence of this wide-spread belief

an Eastern magician should consist
in
that part of the skill of
being
able to detect the places
where these secreted treasures
will successfully
be looked for.*
Often, too, a
man abandoning
the regular pursuits of
industry, will devote himself to treasure-seeking, in the hope of growing,
through some happy chance, rich of a sudden. f

Prov.
ii,
(See Job
iii.
21
4.)
The
contrast, however,
between the present parable and

it
the following, noticed already, renders
unlikely that in the present

;
we
are to assume the finder to have been in search of the treasure

ther stumbles
he ra-
upon
it
unawares,:]: probably while he is
engaged as an
and
hireling in cultivating another man's field.
Some,
the
in the interpretation,
;
draw a
distinction
between the
field
the treffsure
making
a
the
first
to be the
Holy Scriptures;
the second,
hidden mystery of the knowledge of Christ contained in them,
which when
objects
that
man
has partly perceived,

is
discovered, that
all
is,
and got a
glimpse of the treasure, he

;
willing to renounce
meaner aims and
having leisure
his
is
to
search more and more into those Scrip-
tures, to
make them
own, he
Christ
sents
which therein
the outer
spiritual,
contained.
may become rich in the knowledge of Yet to me the field rather reprein-
visible
Church, as contradistinguished from the
ward
with which the treasure would then agree.
As
the
man
by Rosenmuller {Alte und Neue Morgenland,

told
v. 5, p. 197).
Compare
for
the strange story
by Tacitus, Annal.,
1.
16, c. 1-3.
* See Burder's Oriental Literature, v. 1, p.
275
and
evidence of
tiie
same
in
old time, Becker's Charikles, v. 1, p. 224.
t
t
The
reader of Plato will remember his admirable words

treasure, in a field,
:
De
it
Legg.,l. 11, p. 913.
Such a
would naturally be most
often found quite unexpected-
ly
as Horace
si
urnam
argenti fors
qua miki monstret

(Persius.)
:
would often be turned
up by the husbandman engaged in digging or ploughing, and thinking of no such thing
si
sub rastro crepet argenti mihi seria
So Jerome
in
{Corrun. in Matih., in loc.)

;
Thesaurus
iste,
sanctse Scripturae in
I.
quibus reposita est notitia Salvatoris
and Augustine {Qucest. Evang.,
1, qu-
13)
Thesaurum
agro absconditum, dixit duo Testamenta Legis in Ecclesia, quae quis

illic
cum ex
parte intellect's attigerit, sentit
magna
latere, et vadit et vendit

sibi
omnia
sua, et emit
agrum
ilium, id est,
contemtu temporalium comparat
otium,ut,sit di-
ves cognitione Dei.

treasure and the field
Alex.
Knox has an
ingenious view of the relation between the

his
which contains the treasure, in
Eemains,
v. 1, p.
418.
102
THE HID TREASURE.

before looked on the field with careless eyes, prized
field,
it
who
but as an-
other
now sees
it,
in
it
separate him from
so
new worth, now determines that nothing shall he who recognizes the Church, not as an hu-
man
that
institute,
but a divine,
heavenly,
it is
who has
which
is
as a dispenser, not of earthly gifts, but of
learned that
God
is
in the
midst of
it,
sees
now
it
something different from, and something more than,
all
earthly
is
societies, with
which hitherto he has confounded

its
it
and henceforth
sake of
precious in his sight, even to
outermost
skirts, for the
its in-
ward
glory,
is
now
revealed to his eyes.
blessedness
unalterably linked to
And he communion with it

field,
;
sees, too, that

;
as the
man
cannot have the treasure and leave the

be
his, so
but both or neither must
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,

the treasure and the field go together
at the
same
time, separate his fortunes from those of Christ's struggling, suf-
fering,
warring Church
both or
neither must be his.
But not
" when a
to
anticipate the progress of the
parable,
it
this
treasure
man
hath found, he hideih /" having laid

it
open
in the disco-
very, he covers
the field.
up again, while he goes and

it
effects the
purchase of
By
these words
cannot, of course, be meant 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
all
feel himself, as
he never did before, a debtor
to all
is
men,
to
make
have
men
will
see what
is
the fellowship of the mystery that

to his
hid in Christ.
He
go like Andrew
brother man, and say to

to
him "
We
found the Messias," and will seek
bring him to Jesus.

it,
If he hide the
treasure, that will be, not lest another should find
but lest he himself revealed to a soul,
should lose
there
it.*
In the
first
moments
it
that the truth
is
may
well be a tremulous fear lest the blessing found should, by

other, escape from
for this
some means or
do
so,
again
the anxiety that

to
it
may
not
and precautions
end taken, would seem
be the truth
signified
by
it
this
re-concealment of the treasure found.
Having thus
and
selleth
secured
for the
moment, the
finder, ''for joy thereof goeth ,-f
* Maldonatus
Matth., in
loc.)
Non ne alius inveniat, sed ne ipse perdat Jerome (Comm. in Non quod hoc de invidia facial, sed quod timore servantis et nolentis
:
perdere, abscondit in corde suo queni pristinis prsetulit facultatibus.
H. de
:
Sto. Victore
has a somewhat different explanation {De Area. Mor.,
1.
3,
c.
6)
Thesaurum invenThesaurum auhominum, sed

x^P"? avroj).
tum manifestat.quiaccepium donum Sapientiaj in ostentatione tem inventum abscondit, qui accepto dono Sapientiai nou foris intus coram Deo inde gloriari qua;rit.
t 'Arrd
t/Ij ;^;a|odj
portat.
in oculis
a v r o v.
But perhaps rather "for his joy"
(dn-u ri7
THE HID TREASURE.

all that he hath,
103
is
and huyeth
that field
:^''
the joy
expressly mentioned
here, being that in the strength of which the finder of the spiritual trea-
sure
is
enabled to go and
is
sell
all
that he hath ;*
no compulsion, no
;
command
celleth."
necessary
lor joy thereof
he cannot do otherwise
all
other things have
now no
glory, " by reason of the glory which ex-
Augustine excellently
ing the crisis of his
this joy, to give
illustrates this part of the parable.
Describit,
own
conversion, and
how easy he found

fast
through
up
all
those pleasures of sin that he had long dreaded to
be obliged
to
renounce, which had long held him

if
bound
to
in the chains
of evil custom, and which

life itself
he renounced,
it
seemed
:
him
as though
it
would not be
to
to
to
be endured, he exclaims
"
How
sweet did
!
at
I
once become
me,
want the sweetnesses of those toys
and what
didst
castall
feared to be parted from
was now a joy
to part with.
For thou
cast
edst
them them
forth
from me, thou true and highest sweetness.
Thou
forth,
and, for them, enteredst in thyself, sweeter than
pleasure. "f
that he
The
parting with those other delights, which had hitherto

all
held him bound, was, in Augustine's case, the selling
that he had,
might buy the the

to
field.
Compare
Phil.
iii.
4-11, where St.

his trust
Paul declares
in his
us
how he
too sold all that he had,
renounced
own
righteousness, in his spiritual and fleshly privileges, that he

in
might " win Christ and be found

instances, the
him."
In each of these illustrious
the treasure
parted with
man parted with the dearest thing that he had, so to make his own though, in each case, how different was the thing So, too, whenever any man renounces the thing that is
:
closest to him, rather than that that should be
an hinderance
to his
emhis
bracing and making his

lover of
ease,
own
all
the blessings of the Gospel,
money renounces
his covetousness,
and
the lover of pleasure, his pleasure,
and and
is
when the
man, man,
the
his
the indolent the wise

selling
confidence in the wisdom of this world, then each

that he
what he has
may buy
the field
which contains the treasure.
When
Lord
says, (Matt. x. 37-39,) "

is
He
that loveth father or

is,
mother more than me,
not worthy of me, &c. ;" he

;
in fact, exhorting to this selling of all

;
that
we have see also Matt. xvi. 24 and Mark ix. 43-48, where the same command is given. And yet, in the present case, it is not merely it is not to be considered as an arbitrary condition, imposed a command
;
from without, but rather a delightful constraint, acknowledged within
* Bengel:
Gaudium
1.
spirituale, stimulus
:
abnegandi mundum.
t Confess.,
9, c. 1
Quam
suave mihi subilo factum est carere suavitatibus nugaerat.
rum,
et
quas amiltere metus fuerat, jam dimittere gaudium
Ejiciebas
enim eas
dulcior.
a me, vera tu et
summa
suavitas, ejiciebas et intrabas pro eis,
omni voluptate
104
even as a
THE HID TREASURE.

man would
hitherto he
willingly fling down pebbles and mosses, which had been gathering, and with which he had filled his hands, if pearls and precious stones were offered to him;* or as the dead leaves
fall off
easily and as of themselves
from the
tree,
new blossoms and buds which

But a
difficulty has
are forcing their
when propelled by way from behind.

keeping back, as
the
been sometimes found
in the
circumstance of the
it is
finder of the treasure going
and buying the
field,-f
evident that he did, from the owner, the knowledge of the fact which en-
hanced
the
its
value so greatly, that either he would not have parted \vith
it
at all, or
only at a
much
higher price.
They argue
that
it is
against
decorum of
the divine teaching and of 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

for
others as worthy of imitation
that there is
it
a certain approbation of the action conveyed, even in the very use of
such ends
in fact,
they find the same difficulty here as in the paraOlshausen,:}: so far
bles of the Unjust Steward, and the Unjust Judge.
from evading the
difficulty, or
seeking
to
rescue the present parable from
underlying the same
difficulty,
as undoubtedly cleaves to one of those,
himself brings forward the likeness existing between the two, and affirms
that, in both,
prudence (Klugheit) with regard
mended
at least,
it
so that they are parables of the
containing the same moral.

to say, that not
to divine things, is comsame class, and in this respect, But to the objection made above,
seems enough
is
every part of his conduct who found the
treasure,
proposed for imitation, or as affording a point of comparison,^

Ecce
* Augustine
aliunde
petis a
Deo,
1
et dicis,
Domine, da mihi.
Quid
tibi
dabit qui
manus
;
tuas videt occupatas

1
Ecce Dominus vult dare quae sua sunt,

;
et
non videt
ubi ponat
and again (In

te vult
Ep. Joh., Tract. 4)
Bono implendus
es,
funde malum.
Puta quia melle
implere Deus.
Si aceto plenus es, ubi

est, etsi
mel pones?
Funden:
dum
est
quod portabat vas.

rei.
Mundandum
cum
labore,
cum
tritura
ut
fiat
aptum cuidam
t It
is
curious,
and
is
noticed by Vitringa {Erkldr. d. Parab., p. 235), that
we
should have in ancient history, an account almost exactly answering to that which
supplies the
groundwork of
had stood
the present parable.

left
After Mardonius had been conquer-
ed at Plataea, a report existed that he had
great treasures buried within the circuit

the ground, sought long for
told " to turn every stone,"
where
his tent
Polycrates, a
it,
Theban, buying
the treasure, but not finding
inquired at Delphi, and

collectors
,
was
which doing, he found

verb, TTifTa \iOov
t
it.
Such the proverb
give as the origin of the prop.
Kivci.
(See the
Farmm. Grac, Oxf 1836,

:
363.)
In his Biblischer Commentar, a most interesting and instructive work, to which

it
my
obligations are large and frequent

I
has unhappily been
left
unfinished by his
death.
know no work which would

Ivii.
so favourably present the better
German
the-
ology to the English reader, as would

Augustine (Enarr. in Ps.
turis,
this.
6)
Non undecunque
datur similitudo a Scrip-
laudator ipsa res, sed tantiim inde similitudo trahitur.
THE PEARL.
but only his earnestness in securing the treasure found
;
105
his fixed pur-
pose to secure and
make
is
it
his
own,
at all
costs
and
all
hazards, and
(which,
suppose,
Olshausen's meaning) his prudence, without any
affirmation that the actual
manner
in
which
that
prudence was exercised,
was praiseworthy or
not. *
PARABLE
VI.
THE PEARL.
Matthew
xiii.
45, 46.
Almost
all
which would have been
to
be said upon this parable, had
it
stood alone, has been anticipated in that
which went immediately
before.
The
relations in
:
which
the
two stand
to
we have here not merely a wisdom " The kingdom of God

noticed
is
one another have been already

a seeker, of true
unto a merchant
finder, but also
like
man\ seeking
:
goodly pearls."
search
is
To
find
them has been the object of

and
to that is
his labours
" the
therefore determinate, discriminative, unremittintr."
He
has set
;
his purpose distinctly before him,
bending
all his
energies
he
is
one
in fact,
who has
who
felt
that
man was not made

to rest
it is
in vain, that there

all
must be a centre of peace

ings of his soul, and
for
is
him, a good that will satisfy

till
the crav-
determined not
he has found that
good.
He
is
does not perhaps yet
know
that
but one, for at his start-
ing he
seeking many goodly pearls, but rather perhaps imagines that
* In books of casuistry, where they treat of the question,

finder has a right to appropriate things found, this parable
is
how
far
and where a
frequently adduced, as by
Aquinas (Summ. Theol.,
1.
2, qu. 69, art. 5)
Circa res inventas est dislinguendum.
Quaedam enim
sunt, quae
nunquam
Et
fuerint in bonis alieujus, sicut lapilli et

talia
gemma?
ratio est
quae inveniuntur in litore maris.
occupanti conceduntur,
et
eadem
de thesauris antiquo tempore sub terra occul talis, quorum non extat aliquis possessor : nisi quod secundiW leges civiles tenetur inventor dare medietatem domino agri si in
alieno agro invenerit.
thesauri, quod emit
Propter quod in parabola dicitur, {Matth.
xiii.,)
de inventore
agrum, quasi ut haberet jus possidendi totuni thesaurum.
We
read of Apollonius of
rel
it
Tyana
(see his Life,
1.
2, c. 15) being called in to decide a quar-
between the buyer and
seller
of such a
field,
as to which of
them a
treasure found in
it
shall belong.
He
does not
much
help the law of the matter, for he adjudges
to
which-
ever of the parties shall be found, on scrutiny, to have lived in time past the holiest life. t The pearl-merchant was termed margaritarius, though this name was sometimes
also given to the diver.
106
it is
THE PEARL.
many
quarters
:
to be made up and combined from be revealed to him in due time. *

It
but this also will
makes much
in
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

in
we keep
mind the esteem

is
which the pearl was held
in antiquity, f
so that there
single pearls,
record of almost incredible

perfect of their kind.
when
sums having been given for There were 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 wariness which on this account the pearl-merchant must have needed
lest
he should have a meaner thing put upon him

its
in lieu of the best, will
not be without
answer
in the
spiritual world.:]:
Origen observes,
is
that the fact of there being so
many
pearls of an inferior quality (qtavkoi)
adds an emphasis
to the epithet
here used.
The merchant
seeking
^'goodly" pearls, as
himself, not
he
whom
the merchant represents, has set before
mean and
poor, but noble
and worthy, aims, even
in times
anterior to that in
which he
finds the pearl of price.
He
is
not one living
for sensual objects.
He
has not made pleasure, or the acquisition of
money, or the winning of the high places of the world, the end of his But he has been, it may be, a seeker of wisdom, a philanthrolabours.
pist,
a worshipper of the beautiful in nature or in art
who has hoped
to
* Augustine {Serm. de Disc. Christ., v. 6, p. 583, Bened. ed.) assumes the oneness
of that which here

detailed,
is
found as furnishing another point of contrast beside those ah-eady
between
this parable
and the
last.
There
the
kingdom of heaven
is
presented
as manifold, even as a treasure would contain precious things of various kinds laid up as much as to say, This which is so multifold, in it here it is presented in its unity
;
is
also single
and
at heart but one.
t Pliny: Principium culmenque
omnium rerum
pretii
margaritse tenent: and the
word which was rendered (Prov. iii. 15; xx. 15; xxxi. 10) by earlier translators of Scripture most commonly as rubies, is generally believed now to signify pearls though according to Winer (Eeal WOrterb., s. v. Perlen) the question is still unsettled.
;
c.
:)
Discite
lapides sstimare, negotiatores regni coelo-
rum.
Comm.
in Matth., (in loo.) where he has
much
curious learning about pearls.

is
The
theory of their formation current in ancient times
detailed by him.
The
fish
it
conceived the pearl from the
dew
of heaven, and according to the quality of the dew,
was pure and round, or cloudy and deformed with specks. (See Plin. H. N., 1. 9, c. Ammian. Marcell., 1. 23, c. 6, 85.) The state of the atmosphere at the time 35. of their conception, was then naturally supposed to exercise a great influence on their canThus Isidore Ilisp. Meliores size and colour, and even the time of the day.
:
didje margaritae
quam
quae flavescunt
illas
enim aut juventus, aut

and
for all
niatutini roris con-
ceptio reddit Candidas; has senectus vel vesperlinus aiir reddil obscuras.
See also Mr.
Greswell's Exp. of the Par.,
v. 2, p.
220-222
1.
which could be got together
about them, Bochart's Hierozoicon, pars^,
5, c. 5-8.
THE PEARL.
find his soul's
107
this pearl of price,
satisfaction in these.
But
what
is it,
which
at length
he finds
Many
answers have been given, which
yet,
however they may seem

and the same root
pearl
is
;
to
diverge from one another, grow out of one
all
ultimately resolve themselves into one ;*
the
the soul,
all
kingdom of God within a man, or God revealing himself in or the knowledge of Christ, f or Christ himselfjlj: these are
the
but different
ways of expressing
the
same
thing.
sold all that he had,
But when the merchant had found this pearl of price, he " went and and bought it.'^ What this selling of all means, has
;
been already observed
and
to
understand what the buying means, and

;
we may compare Isai. Iv. 1 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 let it go. The contrast between the one pearl which the merchant finds and the many which he had been seeking, is here by no means to be overlooked 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.)
what
it
does not mean,

;
There
is
but one such pearl (though every one

is
may have
that one,) since
the truth
one, even as
God
is
one
and the truth possessed brings that
unity into the heart of man, which sin had destroyed that which through
* See Suicer's Thes.,
t
s. v. fiapyapirns.
:
H. de Sto Victore (Annot. in Matth. :) BohcE maigaritaB, lex et prophetEe una pretiosa, Salvatoris scientia. So Origen on this place says, the law and prophets were as the lamp which was precious till the sun arose he has these instructive references,
;
Matt.
xvii.
5-8
2 Cor.
iii.
10.
Schoettgen observes {Hor. Heb.,
v. 1, p.
:
132
:)
Judsei
doctrinas et lectiones pulchras ac notatu dignas vocarunt margaritas
as in later Latin,
Another name
magaritum was a name of endearment.

rives margarita
it
Von Bohlen (Das
Alt. Ind., v. 2, p. 122,) de-
from a Sanscrit word man&arita; signifying The Pure.
bore signified
t
The
Beloved.
it
Theophylact says, that
of the pearl from the heavenly
was at a moment when it lightened that the conception dew took place, which explains an otherwise obscure pasp.
sage in Clement of Alex., PoUer's ed.,
1014, when, explaining this parable, he says,.
" This pearl
is
the
most pellucid and pure Jesus,
whom
the Virgin conceived from the di-
vine lightning." Augustine, too, (QucBst.ex Matth., qn. 13,) likens Christ to the pearl:
though he does not bring out
this point of
comparison
Est enim Verbum Domini
luci-
dum
candore
veritati?, et
solidum firmitate
aeternitatis, et
undique sui simile pulcritudine
divinitatis, qui
Deus penetrata carnis testudine intelligendusest. Bochart {Hierozoicon,

has a graceful bringing out of the points of likeness between
pearl.
in illo
pars 2,
the
1.
5, c. 8, in fine,)
kingdom
of
God, and a
:
H. de Sto Victore
Quia enim mens hominis

.
uno bono
stare noluit, in quo
potuit feliciter requiescere
projecta foras extra semetipsam, in multiplicitatem
rerum
visibilium spargitur, et veritatem
quam
intus caecata
a fonte haurire non
potest, quasi
per rivulos quosdam visibilium, arescentibus praecordiis, saltern sugere conatur.
These
words are from a Commentary on Ecclesiastes, which book tary on this parable.
itself is
a profound
commen-
108
sin
THE DRAW NET.
had become as a mirror shattered into a thousand fragments, and every

is
fragment reflected some different object,
now
it
reunited again, and the
whole with more or

do, the
less clearness reflects, as

It is
was intended
at first to
one image of God.

its
God
alone in
;
whom any
;
intelligent crea-
ture can find
centre and true repose
only
when man has found

in
him,
does the great Eureka break forth from his lips

ful
Augustine's beauti-
heart
and often quoted words," Lord, thou hast made us for thee, and our * is disquieted till it reacheth in thee."
it
Before concluding the notice of this parable,

while
to
may
just be worth
mention, were
it
only for
its
singularity, an interpretation,
which
strangely reverses the whole matter.

pearls
price
all
;
The merchant seeking goodly

of the elect
his
is
is
now
Christ himself.
The Church
the pearl of
which that he might purchase and make

emptying himself of
own, he parted with
that he had,
his divine glory
and taking the form
of a servant, f explanation, is
the merchant,
it
Or
still
yet more ingeniously, the pearl, as in the
common
make
interpreted as the heavenly blessedness, and Christ
who
that he
might secure that blessedness
to
us and
ours, though he
was
so rich, gladly
made himself
poor,
buying that
:):
pearl and that treasure,
not indeed for himself, but for us.
PARABLE
VII.
THE DRAW NET.

Matthew
This parable would
thai of the Tares.
at first sight
xiii.
47-50.
to
seem
say exactly the same thing as

this
Maldonatus, led
away by
apparent identity of
related the parathat this should
is
purpose
in the
two, supposes that St.
Matthew has not
bles in the order in
which the Lord spoke them, but

that.
have immediately followed upon

* Fecisti nos propter te, et
Here however he
clearly mis-
inquietum est cor nostrum donee requiescat in

p. 66) applies the
te.
Salmeron (Serm in Par. Evang.,
same
to the parable
. . .
preceding
Homo
qui pro
qui invenit thesaurum, hoc est, pretiosam Ecclesiam electorum
Christus est
comparando tanto sanctorum thesauro omnia bona sua distraxit. Compare the Briej Exposition of Matth. xiii., by J. N. Darby, pp. 30, .SI. t So Drexelius (0//;>., v. 1, p. 209 :) Quis verior Christo Domino mercator, qui pretium sui sanguinis infinitum pro pretiosis
illis
mercibus dedit
Ver6
abiit,
vendiditque
omnia, famam, sanguinem, vitam exposuit, ut nobis coelum emeret.
THE DRAW NET.

taken
;
109
there
is this is
fundamental difference between them, that the cen;
tral truth
of that
the present intermixture of the good and bad

;
of
this,
;
the future separation
of that, that
men
are not to effect the separation
of
this, that
the separation will, one day,
by God be
effected
so that
is
the order in which
we have them
is
evidently the right one, as that
concerning the gradual development,

the Church.
that in
that,
this,
the final consummation of
Olshausen draws a further distinction between the two,

the
kingdom of God
is
represented rather in
it
its
idea, as
:
identical with the
whole world, which idea
shall ultimately realize
in this, rather in its present imperfect form, as a less contained in a greater,
which
brace
yet,
all
indeed, has this tendency in

;
itself,
to
spread over and em-
that greater
the
sea being here the world, and the net, the

the world, as the net does
its fish
Church
gatherinsr in
its
members from
from the sea.
Much
the
of what has been already said, in considering the Tares, will

;
apply here.
The same use has been made of eitlier parable there is same continual appeal to this as to that in the Donatist controversy, and the present conveys, to all ages, the same instruction as that, namely, that the Lord did not contemplate his visible Church as a communion in which there should be no intermixture of evil but as there was a Ham in the ark, and a Judas among the twelve, so there should Esau shall be a Babylon even within the bosom of the spiritual Israel contend with Jacob even in the Church's womb,* till, like another Rebe;
;
kah, she shall often have

It
to
exclaim, "
Why am
thus ?" (Gen. xxv. 22.)
conveys,
too, the
same
lesson, that this fact does not justify self-willed
departure from the fellowship of the Church, an impatient leaping over,

or breaking through, the nets, as
it is
often called
but the Lord's sepa-
ration is patiently to be waited for,
which
shall surely arrive at the
end
of the present age.j"
* See Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. cxxvi. 3.

t
The
following extracts will
show
the uses, either practical or controversial, to

Ixiv. 6)
:
which the parable was turned.

per retia
procellis,
fratres,
fidei,
Augustine (Enarr. in Fs.

ibi
Jam
in niaricapti
gaudeamus nos
natare adhuc intra retia, quia adhuc mare hoc ssevit

litus.
sad retia quas nos ceperunt perducentur ad

retia
Interim intra ipsa Multi enim ruperunt
retia,
bene vivamus, non
rumpentes foras exeamus.
retia
et schismata fecerunt, et foras exierunt.
Quia malos pisces intra
retia captos tolerare
se nolle dixerunt, ipsi mali
I'acti
sunt potins,
quam
illi
qiios se
non potuisse
tolerare dix-
erunt.
The curious ballad verses which are
found at the
commencement
to,
of his Anti-
Donatist
Tracts, and which he wrote as he says, to bring the subject within the
comprehension of the most unlearned, begin with a reference

parable.
and exposition
of,
this
Abundantia peccatorum
solet fratres conturbare
Propter hoc Dominus nosier voluit nos prsemonere,
110
It is
THE DRAW
worth our while
to
NET.
consider what
manner of net
it
is to
which
our Lord likens the kingdom of heaven.

in our Bibles,
it
In the heading of the chapter

is distinct-
is
called a
draw
net,
and the particular kind

It is
ly specified by the word in the original.*

suffering nothing to escape from
is
it
;
a net of the largest size,
and
this,
its
all-embracing nature,
certainly not to be
left
out of sight, as an accidental or unimportant
circumstance, but contains in fact a prophecy of the wide reach and

potent operation of the Gospel.
The kingdom
of heaven should hence-
forward be a net, not cast into a single stream as hitherto, but into the
Comparans regnum coelorum
reticulo misso in
mare,
Congreganti niullos pisces, omne genus hinc
et inde,
Quos cum
Bonos
traxis?ent ad litus, tunc cceperunt separare,
in vasa miserunt, reliquos
malos in mare.
Quisquis recolit Evangelium, recognoscat
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 possunt pervenire.
The following 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 parable, and how the Catholics replied. They did not deny that Christ spake in this parable of
sinners being found mingled with the righteous in the Church upon earth, yet
it
was only
concealed smnera
they affirmed (Coll. Carth.,

in
d. 3,)
hoc de reis latentihus dictum,

id est
quoniam reticulum
mari positum quid habeat, a piscatoribus,

litus
a sacerdotibus,
Ita et
ignoratur, donee extractum ad
ad purgationem boni seu mali prodantur.
latentes et in Ecclesia constituti, et a sacerdotibus ignorati, in divino judicio proditi,
tanquam
pisces mali A
iii.
sanctorum consortio separantur.
Augustine answers, with an

et area
allusion to Matt.
12
{Ad Don.
post Coll.,
c.
10)
Numquid
sub aqua vel
terra trituratur, aut certc nocturnis horis,
non
in sole, conteritur, aut in

;
ea rusticus csecus
operatur?
It is
evident that their reply
was a mere evasion
that they took refuge in
an accidental circumstance in the parable, namely, that so long as the nets are under
water
their contents
cannot be seen, so to avoid being plainly convinced of schism.
*
net, as
Layfivri (not as
some derive
it,
from
eo-w dyeiv,
but from aarTco, onero,) an hauling

net
distinguished from the dufiiSXriiiTpov or casting

It
(Matt.
iv.
18)
in
Latin,
fragum, tragula, verriculum.
was
where
it is
now
used, and bears the

to
immense same name,

of
length.
On
the coast of Cornwall,
seine or sean, a
corruption of the
it
Greek, which has come
us through the Vulgate and the Anglo-Saxon,
is
somethe
times half a mile in length; and scarcely could have been

ancients, since
ta
it
much
smaller
among
is
)
spoken of as nearly taking

It
is
in the
it
compass of an
entire bay, (vas-
sagena, Manilius
leaded below, that
may sweep
it
the bottom of the sea,

to enclose a large
and supported with corks above, and having been carried out so as
space of sea, the ends are then brought together, and
is
with
all
that
it
in provincia, in
drawn up upon the beach Cicero calls Verres, with a play upon his name, ererriculum contains. and in the Greek Fathers we have Oacuroti that he swept all before him
;
uayfivn, KaraK^.vaiiov aayfivn (see
Suicer's Thcs.,
8.
v.)
in
each case with allusion
to the
THE DRAW NET.

some out of every kindred and tongue and people and
it is
Ill
broad sea of the whole world, and gathering or drawing together (John
xi. 52,)
nation.
Or when
said, that
it
both good and bad.
As
" gathered of every kind," we may understand the servants who were sent to invite guests to
all,
the marriage supper, (Matt, xxii. 10,) "gathered together
as
many
all
as they found, both bad and good ;" so here the fishers take fish of
kinds within the folds of the net
men of every
diversity of moral cha-
racter have the Gospel preached to them, and find themselves within the
limits of the visible
Church.*
But
is
as all do not use the advantages
which the communion of the

is
Church has
sat doion
afforded them, an ultimate separation

;
necessary
next described
the
and
this
net,
and gathered
the
when it was full, they drew to shore, and good into vessels, but cast the bad away."
is
"
When
the
number
of God's elect
accomplished, then the separation of

It is
the precious from the vile shall follow, of the just from sinners.
most likely that from some image like that which our parable supplies,
the leaving and taking of Matt. xxiv. 41, 42,
is to
be explained,
" the
one shall be taken, and the other

taking
is for
left."
Probably there as here the

;
blessedness, the selecting of the precious
the leaving for
all-embracing nature of this net, which allowed no escape.
See Hab.
forth
i.
15-17,
LXX.,
com-
where the mighty reach of the Chaldaean conquests

by
this
is set
under
this
image, and
is
word.
In this view of
it,
as
an
a-ripavrov S'iktvov "Atti;,
how grand
the
parison in
Homer
(Odyss., 22. 384) of the slaughtered suitors,

uar' i^dvaSf ovad'
KoTXov is atytaXov
a\ifjci;
whom
Ulysses saw,
jtoXiiIs
CKToadc daXaaar]!
ol it
SiKTV(j kêpvirav ttoXvottm.

KUfiaO'
n Trdvrci,
Ki-)(yvTai.
vi.
:
a\ds Trodiovres, enl ipafiddoiai

(iii.
There are curious notices in Herodotus

the Persians swept
149
31) of the
manner
the
in
which
;
away
the conquered population from
some of
Greek islands
a chain of men, holding hand in hand and stretching across the whole island, ad-
vanced over
its
whole length
thus
taking, as
it
were, the entire population in a
draw net
and
to this process the technical
name
c.
cayrivcictv
is
was
is
applied.
;
Cf.
Plato's
1.
Menexenus (p. 42, Stallbaum's ed.) where 698 and Plutarch, De Solert. Animal., trnynvrt in the Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Antt
;
the process
described
De
Legg.,
3, p.
26.
There
a good account of the
s.
v. Rete, p. 823.
* Beza, indeed, translates
Ik navrd;
yhov;, ex omni rerum genere, as
mud,
shells,
sea-weed, and whatever else of worthless would be gathered together within the folds
of a net
;
these things
would then be understood by the
o-an-po,
which are described in
the next verse as cast
away; and
so
it
is
in
the
Geneva
to
version,
"of
all
:
all
kinds of
fish of
things."
all
But the plain sense of the parable would seem
determine that
it is
kinds as the Vulgate, ex omni genere piscium), and not things of
kinds,
which
are spoken of; in the
words of H. de Slo Victore (Annott.

vel majoribus peccatis sunt a
in Matth.)
Congregat ex
omnibus qui minoribus

dispersi.
all sorts
Deo
divisi, et
per multas iniquitates
Another name of the

of prey within
its folds.
net, irdvaypov, is exactly derived
from
this collecting
of
112
THE DRAW NET.

;
destruction, the rejecting of the vile
though the terms have sometimes
Yet hardly with justice ; " but the refused, and the refused but the refuse ?* Whether these " lad "-j- are dead putrid fish, such as sometimes are enfor
been understood
in exactly the opposite sense.

left
what
is
the "
closed within a net, and brought to land,

for nothing,
fish
or
fish worthless,
at the
and good
" that which
was
sick and
unwholesome
season," or
such as from their kind, their small ness, or some other cause, are
unfit to be either sold or eaten,

to rot
and are therefore flung carelessly

for the birds of prey,
it
aside,
upon the beach, and
to
become food
;
(Ezek.
it is
xxxii. 3, 4,) there is
much
question
and
^^
seems not easy, as
not
very important,
from
to decide.
These dead or worthless

all evil
fish
are
cast atoay.''
An
its
entire freedom
belongs
to the
idea of the Church, and this idea shall be

all
ultimately realized.
files its
Notwithstanding
that
mars
purity, and de-
brightness,
we
confess our belief in an holy Catholic
Church
The
nature of this separation
hasty
work confusedly huddled over

appends, Studiose cf Luke
may be
that
it
will
be
with entire consideration

in
no
indicated
fishers for the task of sorting the
good from the bad.

.xiv.
cavTCi
28, 31
xvi.
down of the Thus Bengel, who to this Kadi6. At the same time it comthe sitting
pletes the natural picture

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

t â-pa,
soil.
i^BvSta.
Grotlus
Sunt nugamenta
et
:
quisquiliae
(.'i/^pwra ko!
genus ut servatu indignum, videmus a piscatoribus

pisces frivolos, Apuleius.)
abjici
Lucian
Yet Vitringa,
must signify
in
an instructive note (Erklflr.
Parah., p.
344,
seq.,) refers to
Athenaeus as using
ai-npoX i^êits in
opposition to rp6a,paTot.
As
the
latter are the fresh, the first

u (Ta;)7ru)j,
stale, or
here yet more strongly, putrid,
{aa-rrpdi,
Etym. Mag.,) and he denies

word,
to take
it
that
we
should depart from
this, the
primary
to find
signification of the
up with the secondary. Ovid gives
But on the other hand,
dead
fish in
list
a net, though
will
sometimes happen, must be of a rare occurrence, and

in his
of the
of fishes, which, for instance,
fragment of the Halieuticon, Et nigrum niveo porlans
how many, though perfectly fresh, would be flung noxious, the immunda chromis, merito vilissinia
in corpore virus Loligo, durique sues; or
ictu,
aside as not edible, as worthless or salpa

.
again,
Et
capitis duro nocilurus scorpius
all
which might well have been gathered
in this aayinir].
We
have proof that at

14,)
times some of them were, from a proverb in
the
which
is
explained as containing allusion to a
Panrm. Graci (Oxf 183G, p. fisherman, who had got such a
sea-
scorpion in his net, by which he
was
stung, while
carelessly handling its contents.
would of neceshave taken place, not because some of the fish were dead, but because they were unclean " all that have not fins and scales shall be an abomination unto you." (Lev.
this rejection of part of the contents
Moreover, with Jewish fishermen
sity
xi.
9-12.)
it,
These probably were the

inutiles et putridos.
for
aairpi.
explains
Our
translation
Fritzche combines both meanings, for he using the word " bad," has not de-
termined absolutely
one sense or the other.
See Suicer's Thes.,
a v.
THE DRAW NET.

for
113
it,
we
believe that whatever
we
see cleaving to
which
is
not holy,
is
an alien disturbing element, which shall one day be perfectly separated As all the prophets foreannounce such a glorious consummafrom it.
tion,
so in the Revelation
it
is
contemplated as
at last
accomplished
" ivUhout are dogs," (Rev. xxii. 15,) where, as in the words used here,
and
in so
many
it
other passages, the
Church
is
contemplated as an holy
to
enclosure,* into which nothing unclean has a right
enter
it
and from
which,
if
has by stealth or force effected an entrance,
shall sooner
or later be excluded
shut out
for ever,
even as those ceremonially un-
clean, in witness of this,
were obliged
to
remain
for a season without the
camp, which was the figure of the true kingdom of God. offers no explanation of the " vessels " into which the good
thered
;
Our Lord
fish
are ga-
nor, indeed, is
any needed
;
what the " barn " was
at ver. 30,
the " vessels
" are here

to
the "
many mansions
" (John xiv. 2) which
the
" prepare for his people, the " everlasting habitations (Luke xvi. 9) into which he promises to receive them,f the " city which
Lord went
hath foundations" that
Abraham
looked
for.
(Heb.
xi. 10.)
?
But
to
whom
is
the task of separation to be confided

is
Here
ij:
can-
not consent to Olshausen's view, which
also Vitringa's,
its
that those
who
tles
cast the net,
and those who discriminate between
contents, being,
in the parable, the
same
therefore, since the first are evidently the aposto the
and their successors, now become, according

iv.
Lord's promise,
xlvii.
" fishers of men," (Matt.

xvi. 16
;
19
Luke
v.
10
Ezek.
10
Jer.
) so the last
must be
not the angelic ministers of God's judg-
From
this
image
is to
be explained the frequent use of the terms

is
'|w,
and
(as
its
here) UlSiWeiv Ut^-
The Church
/coct/ios
regarded as complete in
itself,
with the line of
separation from the sinful
distinctly
iv.
drawn.
Col. iv. 5
All non-christians then are those

;)
" that are without,"

(ui nn /?dX(o
t'lto),
(ol
cû,
Mark
11
Christ will in no wise cast out
that is expel from this holy enclosure, this city of refuge, those that
vi.
come
to
him.
(John
37.)
The
prince of this world shall be cast out, (John
xii.
is
31,) driven forth from God's
redeemed creation.
He
that
abideth nbt in Christ,

;
cast forth, or cast out, as a branch, (John xv. 6,)
the image continuing the same

et beatse vitae
as
the dead vine branches are flung forth from the vineyard
and a riddance made of them,
so will these be expelled from the
kingdom of God.
:
t Augustine (Serm. 368,
c.
3)
Vascula sunt sanctorum sedes,
mag-
na secreta.
X
Erklar. This
last
d.
Parah.,
p.
351, seq.
reference to Jer. xvi. 16, will only hold good, supposing
we
connect
this
it
verse not with
what
follows, but as
Jerome does, with what goes

them.
before,
and so make
not a threat, but a promise that into whatever place the Lord's people have been scattered,
from thence he
will be at all pains to recover

(p.
In that fine Orphic

Christ himself
is
hymn
attributed to
Clement of Alexandria,
312, Potter's ed.)
addressed
114
THE DRAW NET.
ments, but the same messengers of the Covenant, and as such, angels,
to
whom, being equipped with divine power,
the task of judging and sunits
dering should be committed.
No
doubt the Church, in
progressive de-
always thus judging and separating (1 Cor. v. 4, 5 ; Jude 22, 23;) putting away one and another from her communion, as they But she does not count that openly declare themselves unworthy of it.
velopment,
is
she has thus cleansed herself, or that this perfect cleansing can be effected
by any power which now she wields.

sundering from without, and of
else in Scripture
ers. (Matt. xiii.
this the final separation,
There must be a judgment and every where
we
41
;
find the angels distinctly
named
as the executionIt
xxiv. 31
xxv. 31
Rev. xiv. 18, 19.)*
seems
then contrary
to the
analogy of
faith to interpret the present
passage in
any other manner.

It is quite true, that in the familiar occurrence which supplies the groundwork of the parable, the same who carried out tlienet would naturally also draw it to shore, as it would naturally be they who would
also inspect
its
contents, for the purpose of selecting the good and cast-
ing the worthless

fact, is the
away
but
it
is
pushing
this
circumstance, which, in
weak
side of the comparison, too far, to require that the
same
should also hold good in the spiritual thing signified. In the nearly allied
parable of the Tares, there was no improbability in supposing those
who
watched the growth of the crop

gathered
it
to
be different from those

is
who
:
finally
in
and, accordingly, such a difference
marked
those are
the servants, these are the reapers.

in the
The
differenc3 could not be
same way
here, but
it is
indicated, though lightly, in another

;
marked way.
be,
The
fishers are not
once mentioned by name
the imperfection of the
human
illustration to set forth the divine truth, is kept, as far as
may
out of sight, by the whole circumstance being told, as nearly as possible,
impersonally.
And when
the
Lord himself
interprets the parable, he

it
;
passes over, without a word,
the beginning of
thus again drawing
away
attention from a circumstance,
upon which
to
dwell might need-
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.
'X^^^ nyvovi
'A.Xiev jiepdiroiv
ircXayoDf Kaxia;
yXvKcp^
fojoT
ScXea^wv.
is
* Moreover in each of the other parables of judgment, there
a marked distinction^
which
ters
it
is
little
likely should
have been here renounced, between the present minis-
of the kingdom, and the future executors of
doom
servants and the
reapers
in
the
Tares between the

xxii. 3, 13), be-
in the
Marriage of the King's Son (Matt.

(SiaKovoi), in
tween the servants
[SoiXoi)
and attendants
(oJ
the
Pounds between
the
ser-
vants and those that stand by
KapccruTCi ,
Luke
xix. 25).
THE DRAW NET.

lessly
116
have perplexed his hearers,

stress of
it
and
:
explains only the latter part,
where the point and

world
just,
:
the angels shall
it be at the end of the come forth and sever the wicked from among the
lay
" So shall
and
shall cast them into the furnace of fire.'^*
Assuming then
as
we may, and
and leavers,
indeed must, the angels of heaven here also to be the takers
we may
find
an emphasis in the " coming forth" which

the
first
is
attributed to them.
Ever since
constitution of the
have been hidden

at that great
withdrawn from men's sight for so epoch of the kingdom, they shall again " come forth" from
Church they But then long.
before the throne and presence of God, and walk up and
down among
first
men, the
visible ministers of his
judgments.
at the
Though
the
the parable, as
to that
was observed
beginning, at
sight
appears so similar
of the Tares, as merely to teach over again

it,
;
same
truth, yet the
moral of
in fact, is
very
different.
is
It is
need-
less to re-state the
purpose of that
but the moral of this
clearly, that
we
that be not content with being enclosed within the Gospel-net, " they are not all Israel, who are of Israel," but that, in the "great
house" of the Church, "there are but of wood and of earth, and some
and meet
of
all
not only vessels of gold and silver,

to
honour, and some to dishonour ;"
that each of us therefore seek to be " a vessel unto honour, sanctified

for the master's use ;"
(2
Tim.
ii.
20, 21
;)
since in the midst
the confusions of the visible Church, "the
Lord knoweth them

to
that are his,"
and
will
one day bring the confusion
an end, separating,
and
for ever, the precious
from the
vile
it
the true kernel of
humanity
from the husk in which
for a while
was enveloped.
seven parables, the present
Having arrived
will be a
fit
at the conclusion of these
opportunity for saying a few words concerning their mutual
and how far they constitute a complete whole. number seven has offered to many interpreters a temptation too strong to be resisted for the seeking in them some hidden mysand when the seven petitions of the Lord's Prayer, and the names tery
relation to one another,
The
mystical
of the seven original deacons, (Acts
vi. 5,)
have been turned into proto
phecy of seven successive
states of the
ii.
Church, not
speak of the seven

to
Apocalyptic Epistles, (Rev.
iii.,)
it
was scarcely
be expected that
prophetic of
these seven parables should have escaped being

the same.
made
They have
been, in fact, so often thus dealt with as prophecy, that

to
a late ingenious writer* needed not

*
have apologized
for
making an
Chrysostom well
calls the parable
with reference to this verse, foêpav napa0o\fji

11.
and Gregory the Great pays of the same {Horn.
in Evang.),
Timendum
est potiCis
quam exponendum.
t Alex.
Knox,
in his
Eemains,
v. 1, p.
408.
116
THE DRAW NET.

it
attempt of the kind, as though
were something ahogether novel and

:
unheard
of.
Having
offered his apologies, he proceeds
"
It is
my
per-
suasion that the parables in this chapter are not to be considered disjointedly, but to be taken together as a connected series, indicating, pro-
gressively, the several stages of

cal
advancement through which the mystikingdom of Christ, upon earth, was to proceed, from its commencement to its consummation. ... It will be understood, then, that each
parable has a period peculiarly
its
own,
in
which the
state of things, so
signified,
predominates
but
when another
It
state of things
commences,
;
the former does not cease. as really as ever, but in a

lead.
It
only becomes less prominent

subsidiary
to that
operative
way
which now takes the
will follow that
each succeeding stage implies a virtual com-
bination of all that has gone before, and, of course, the grand concluding
scene will contain the sublimated
spirit
and extracted essence of the and applies

it
whole."
first
Bengel announces the same
tlieory,*
thus: the
parable, he affirms, refers to the times of Christ and his immediate
apostles,
when was
the original sowing of the
word of eternal
second, that of the Tares, to the age immediately following,
life. The when watch-
fulness against false doctrine began to diminish, and heresies to abound.
The
third,
that of the
Mustard Seed,
to the
time of Constantine,
when
it,
the Church, instead of even seeming to need support, evidently gave
and the great ones of the earth came under
its
shadow and
protection.
The
fourth, that of the
Leaven, refers
to the
propagation of true religion

to the
through the whole world.
The
fifth,
of the Hid Treasure,
more
hidden state of the Church, signified in the Apocalypse
(xii.
6) by the
woman
flying into the wilderness.
The
shall
sixth, that of the Pearl, to the
glorious time
when
the
kingdom
be esteemed above
all
things,
Satan being being bound.

the trouble to
The
seventh, of the
ultimate confusion, separation, and judgment.
Draw Net, details the Any one who will take
compare the two schemes with one another, will be inhow merely capricious they both must be, when he notes the considerable differences that exist between tlicm. They have two out of the seven, the fifth, and the sixth, altogether ditlerent.
duced
to
suspect
Yet though not thus historico-prophetical, these parables were

certain sense prophetical, for they foretold things that
in a
to
were
to
come
Praeter
communes
et pcrpetuas regni caclorum sive Ecclesiae rationes,

in perioilos
convcniunt
et
jEtates
hee septem paraboloe, reconditissimum habentes sensum, etiam
Ecclesiae diversas, ita
quidem
ut alia post aliam in
complemento
incipiat,
non tamen
sequenlis exeat. An essay which I know only by name, Reuss Meletema de sensu septem Parab., Matih. xiii. prophetico, Haun. 1733, must no doubt be an exposition of the same theory. See against it Marckius, Syll. Dissert.
prior quaelibet ante initium
:
Exerc.
4.
THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT.

pass
;
HJ
them
to ac-
only
it
was
not the Lords's
main purpose
in uttering
quaint his servants with the future destinies of his Church, but rather to
give them practical rules and warnings for their conduct.
So, too,
doubtless the seven have a certain unity, succeeding one another in natural order,
and having a completeness
in
themselves
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 ob-
development of Christ's kingdom, even after a Church has been hedged in and fenced round from the world, are destacles to the internal
clared and are traced up to their true author, with a warning against
the
manner in which men might be tempted The Mustard Seed and the Leaven declare
and therefore implicitly prophesy of
its
to
remove those
obstacles.
the
victorious might,
the
;
first,
the outward, and the second, the inward might of that
kingdom
development
in spite of all these
obstacles,
and
its
triumph over them.
As
these two are objective and
general, so the two which follow are subjective and individual, declar-
ing the relation of the kingdom to every man,
its
supreme worth, and

to
how
all
those
who have
its
discovered that worth will be willing

;
renounce
things for
sake
they have besides mutual relations already touch-
ed on, and complete one another.

entire separation from evil,
This
in the
last is the declaration,
which
second
we saw
that
how that men miwht

to
be tempted to anticipate by unpermitted means, shall yet come
pass,
that separation
which
it is
righteous to long for in God's

to anticipate
;
own
time,
but wrong by self-willed efforts prematurely
and
lookino-
forward
to
which, each
is to strive
that he
may
so use the present priv-
ileges and
him, that he
means of grace, which the communion of the Church affords may be found among those that shall be the Lord's when he shall put away all the ungodly like dross, when he shall set a difference between them who serve him, and them who serve him not.
PARABLE
VIII.

Matthew
xviii.
23
35.
;
There
is
nothing in the discourse going before, to lead immediately to
the question of Peter's, in answer to
while, at the
same
time, the words, "
which this parable was spoken Then came Peter," seem to mark
X18
that the

connection
is
unbroken.
It
may
perhaps be thus
traced
Peter must have
felt in
his Lord's injunctions concerning the
manner of
dealing with an offending brother, (ver. 15-17,) that the forgiveness
of his fault was necessarily implied as having already taken place

since,
till
we had
is
forgiven,
we could
even
not be in the condition to deal with
him thus;
fellowship,
for this dealing,
to the
exclusion of him from Churchiii.
entirely a dealing in love, (2 Thess.
14, 15,)
and with
it
a view
as
to his recovery,
(See Sirac xix. 13-17.)

inclined to understand
to
it,
Nor does
mean,
we might
be too
much
that after the failure
of these repeated attempts to win him
a better mind,
we
should even
;*
then be justified in feeling strangeness towards him in our hearts
for
compare the whole course of

ercise of the law of love
St.
Paul's injunctions concerning the
offender in the Corinthian church.
Were
that too the

to three
meaning, the extimes

;
would then be limited

to
(see ver.
15-17
is
;)
and that
to
in opposition
what immediately
follows,
where
it
extended
seventy times seven. f
Chrysostom observes, that when

of times that an offending brother
Peter instanced seven, as the
number
should be forgiven, he accounted certainly that he

thing,
was doing some great
that his charity
was taking
a large stretch, these seven being
more than the Jewish masters enjoined.:}: He increased the number of times with the feeling, no doubt, that the spirit of the new
four times
law of love which Christ had brought into the world, a law larger, There was required this. freer, more long-suffering, than the old,
As
neither,
seven exclude a dealing,
on the other hand, does the command to forgive till seventy times if need be, of severity, provided always it be a dealing in love.
83,
c. 7)
:
Thus Augustine (Serm.

itas
Si per caritatem imponitur disciplina, de corde len-
non recedat.
Quid enim tam pium quani medicus ferens ferramentuni?

:
Plorat
secandus, et secalur
tia
plorat urendus, et uritur.
Non
est ilia crudelitas, absit ut ssevisi
medici dicatur.
Cf.
Sa3vit in vulnus, ut
homo
sanetur, quia
vulnus palpetur,
homo
perditur.
Serm. 211. t Our Lord's " seventy times seven" of forgiveness makes a wonderful contrast, which has not escaped the notice of St. Jerome (v. 2, p. 565, edit. Bened.) to Laiv.
;
mech's, the antediluvian Antichrist's, seventy and seven-fold of revenge. (Gen.

'EPSojjTfKoi/TdKii trrni is not,
24.)
for
as Origen and
some others understand
it,
70
-[-
= 77
that would be rather

t
ii. f)
;
ifiiofjii^KovTa JirroKif,
but 70
x 7 = 490.
and not more, on
They grounded
also
the duty of forgiving three times
Amos
i.
on Job
x.\xiii.
29, 30
loc.)
at
this last
passage see the marginal translation.
(Lightfoot's Hor. Ileh., in
While
It is
this is true, there
were yet deeper motives
for his selection of the
number
(Hipcais)
seven.
the
number
in
the divine
law with which the idea of remission
was ever
linked.
;
The seven
;
times seventh year
was the year of jubilee
(troi rns dîatui).
Lev. XXV. 28 cf iv. 6, 17 xvi. 14. 15. It is true that we find it as the number of punishment or retribution for evil also; (Gen. iv. 15; Lev. xxvi. 18,21,24,28; Deut.
xxviii.
25
Ps. Ixxix. 12
Prov.
vi.
31
Dan.
iv.
16
Rev. xv.
;)
yet this should

then in Peter's mind a consciousness of this
119
of love,
new law
at
though
time, a
an obscure one, since he supposed
it
possible that love could ever be
overcome by
hate,
good by
evil.
But there was,
the
same
fundamental error
in the question itself, for in
proposing a limit beyond
notion, that a
which forgiveness should not extend, there was evidently implied the man in forgiving, gave up a right which he might, under
certain circumstances, exercise.

in other words, of the parable,
The purpose of our Lord's answer, is to make clear that when God calls
right to exercise in the matter
:
on a
member
of his kingdom to forgive, he does not call on him to re-
nounce
to
a right, but that he has
now no
to
asking for and accepting forgiveness, he has implicitly pledged himself
show
it
and
it
is difficult
imagine how any amount of didactic
instruction could have conveyed this truth with at all the force and conviction of the following parable.
better,
" Therefore," to the end that you may understand what I say the " is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which
first
would take account of his servants." This is the which God appears in his character of King.
with
of the parables in
are the servants
is
We
;
whom
he takes account.
Yet
this is not, as
plain, the
fnal
reckoning, not identical with that of Matt. xxv. 19

rather such a reckoning as that of
2 Cor. v. 10; but

this
Luke
xvi. 2.
To
he brings us
face,
by of our before our by awakening and alarming our conscience was asleep by casting us of by bringing us
by
the preaching of the law,
the setting
sins
that
before,
into adversities,
into perils
death, so
that
we seem to see it near with us when he makes us

in a thousand,
before us
feel that
(2 Kin. xx. 4 ;) he takes account
we
could not answer him one thing

the hairs of our heads
that our trespasses are
more than
when through one means or another he brings our careless carnal security to
an utter end.
the
(Ps.
1.
21.)
Thus David was summoned

;
before
word of Nathan the prophet (2 Sam. xii.) thus the Ninevites by the preaching of Jonah, thus the Jews by John the Baptist. " And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him which
God by
owed him ten thousand

on
this
one
talents ;" he had not to go far, before he lighted This perhaps was the he had only " begun to reckon."
;
first into
whose accounts he looked
there
may
have been others with
not disturb or perplex, rather confirm us in this view, since there
lies
ever in punishxvi. 42.)
ment
phere.
the idea of restoration of disturbed relations,
and so of forgiveness. (Ezek.
It is the
storm which violently restores the disturbed equilibrium of the moral atmos-
Gregory of Nyssa then has a true insight into the reason

v. 1, p.
why
Peter should
!>
have named seven times, when he observes {0pp.,

Srt Kavuv irapaSdacios dpy(âios lari, t6v l^doâia
159)
Hapernpriaei'
Ilfrpot,
E/iâo-ii' t')(tiv
'e,li66^r\ ftjxcpa
tipo; d^tuttoj aixapTriiiirdJi/, uva-
Travaeus TtXtt'of, ov
ariixcTov
to aa0l3aT6v c^tiv, h
dird
yeviccus.
120

This one " was brought unto him," he never
far
yet larger debts behind.
would have come of himself;

ten into twenty thousand
;
more
to
likely he
would have made that up
for
the secure sinner goes on treasuring
(Rom.
ii.
5) an
is
ever mightier sum,
be one day required of him.
The sum here

been, though
talent
it
immense, whatever
differ
;
talents
in
we suppose
it
these to have
to the
would
very
much
amount, according
which we assumed
if,
indeed, the
Hebrew,
would then be a
express the
sum
perfectly
enormous
;*
yet only therefore the
fitter to
greatness of every man's transgression in thought, word, and deed,

against his God.
In the case before
us, the
immensity of the sum

to
may
be best exser-
plained by supposing the defaulter
have been one of the chief
vants of the king, a farmer or administrator of the royal revenues
;"]
or
seeing that in the despotisms of the East, every individual, from the
highest to the lowest, stands in an absolutely servile relation

arch,
is
to the
monto
in fact
his servant or slave, there is nothing in that

to
name
hinder us from supposing him
be one, to
whom some
chief post of
honour and dignity
in the
kingdom had been committed,
a satrap who
by comparing
should have remitted the revenues of his province to the royal treasury.
*
it
How
great a
sum
it
was, we can most vividly realize

is
to ourselves
with other sums of which mention
made
in Scripture.
;
In the construction of the

;)
tabernacle, twenty-nine talents of gold were used
(Exod. xxxviii. 24
David prepar;
ed
for
the temple three thousand

;)
talents
of gold, and the princes five thousand

to
(1
Chron. xxix. 4-7
the queen of
;
Sheba presented
14
and
Solomon, as a royal
gift,
one hun-
dred and twenty talents

thirty talents of gold
;
(1
Kin. x.
10;) the king of Assyria laid upon Hezekiah

;)
(2 Kin. xviii.
at the last,
in the
extreme impoverishment to which

laid
the land
was brought
one talent of gold was
upon
it,
after the death of
Josiah, by the king of Egypt.
(2 Chron. xxxvi. 3.)
t In the Jewish parable (Schoettgen's
Hor. Heb.
of
v. 1, p.
155), which bears re-
semblance
to that before us, in so far as the sins

it
men
are there represented under the
image of enormous debt, which

entire city,
is
impossible to pay
it is
the tribute due from an
which
is
owing
to the king,
and which,
at the entreaty of the
inhabitants,
he remits.
t
According
to Plutarch,
{Eeg.
et
Imp. Apothegm.,)
it
was
the
exactly this
sum
of
ten thousand talents with which Darius sought to buy off Alexander, that he should
same sum was imand when Alexander, at Susa, paid the debts of the whole Macedonian army, they amounted to only twice this sum, though every motive was at work to enhance the amount. (See Droysen's Gesch. Alexanders, p. 500.) Von Bohlen (Das Alt. Ind.,\. 2, p. 119)
not prosecute his conquests in Asia
;
as also
the
payment of
posed by the Romans, on Antiochus the Great, after his defeat by them
gives
some curious and almost
incredible notices of the quantities of gold in the East.
do not
know whether
the
immensity of the sum may partly have moved Origen

it
to his
strange supposition, that

still,
can only be the

!
man
of sin (2 Thes.
ii.)
that
is
here
indicated, or stranger
the Devil
v.
Compare Tuilo's Cod. Apocryphus,

5, p. 1122.
v. 1, p.
887, and Neander's Kirch. Gesch.,

This
is
121
far
more probable than
that he
is
such an one as those servants
in the parable of the Talents, to
whom
monies were committed that
they might trade with them

supposition very unlikely. the confiscation of
less
all
the greatness of the debt renders such a
Nor would
the sale of the defaulter, with

far to
his goods,
have gone
pay such a
;
debt, unit is
he had been one living in great splendour and pomp
though,
true, the
words of the original do not imply that the king expected the
debt to be discharged with the proceeds of the sale, but that whatever
those proceeds were, they were to be rendered into his treasury.
The sale
them
to
of the debtor's wife and children,
be sold with him,
for the
king commanded
rested
upon the theory that they were a part

to
of his property.
Thus, according
Roman
were
law, the children being
part of the property of the father, they
sold into slavery with him.
That
it
was allowed under the Mosaic law

;
to sell
an insolvent debtor,
it
is
implicitly stated. Lev. xxv. 39
and ver. 41, makes

;
probable that his
family also came into bondage with him same custom in other places. (2 Kin. iv. 1
and we
find allusion to the

,
Neh.
Jer. xxxiv.
8-11
Amos
ii.
viii. 6.)
it,
6 ; Isai. 1. 1 Iviii. Michaelis * states that the

v.
later
Jewish doctors declared against
except in cases where a thief

done, and
the
is in-
should be sold to
clined to think
make good the damage which he had that there was no such practice among
this
Jews
in
our
Lord's time, but that
dealing with the servant
is
borrowed from the

to
practice of neighbouring countries.
There
is
much
make
this pro-
bable
it is
certain that the imprisoning of a debtor, which also

this
we twice
meet with
law
;
in
parable,
(ver. 30, 34,) formed
no part of the Jewish
where the creditor possessed the power of selling him into " The Tormentors'^ bondage, it would have been totally superfluous. also, (ver. 34,) those who make inquisition by torture, have a foreign apindeed,
pearance, and would incline us
to
look for the locality of the parable else-
where than
to sell those,
in
Judea.
For
the spiritual significance,
God may be
said
whom
he altogether alienates from himself, rejects, and de-
livers for ever into the
power of another.
By
the selling here
may
be
indicated such " everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord
thy
and the glory of his power."

people for nought."
Compare
Ps. xliv. 12, "
Thou
sellest
The
to
servant, hearing the dreadful
doom pronounced
him.''
against
him by
his lord, betakes himself to supplication, the one resource that remains
him
he
^'fell
down and worshipped
The
formal act of wor-
ship, or adoration, consisted in prostration
on the ground, and kissing of

to note the nice
the feet and knees
and here Origen bids us

* Mos. Recht.,
observance
v. 3, p.
58-60.
122

This servant " worshipped "
;
of proprieties in the details of the parable.

the king, for that honour
that the other
was
paid to royal personages
but
it is
not said
servant worshipped, he only " besought,^' his fellow-serall,"
vant.
His words, " Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee
are characteristic of the extreme fear and anguish of the moment, which
made him ready

if
to
promise impossible things, even mountains of gold,
only he might be delivered from the present danger.
When
now
a
;
words
con-
of a like kind find utterance from the lips of the sinner,
first
vinced of his sin, they show that he has not yet attained
into his relations with his
this
to
full insight
God
that he has yet
much
due
to
learn
as
namely
;
that no future obedience can
make up
for past disobedience

:
since
that future
God claims
it
as his right, as only his

it
it
could not then,
even were
perfect,
which
will prove far
from being, make compensaself-
tion for the past.
We may
hear then in the words, the voice of
righteousness, imagining that, if only time
were allowed,
it
could
make
It
good
all
the shortcomings of the past.
The words
are exceedingly im-
portant, as
is
very much explaining
to
us the later conduct of this man.
clear that he had never

Little, in
come
to a true recognition of the
immensity of
his debt.
the subjective
measure of
little,
his
own
all.
estimate,
It is
was
forgiven him, and therefore he loved
or not at
true that
by
his
demeanour and
thei'e
his
cry he did recognize his indebtedness, else

:
would
have been no setting of him free
and he might have gone

but as
on, and had he been true to his

to
own
mercies, he would have gone on,

:
an ever fuller recognition of the grace shown him

little
it
was, in
while he
at
lost sight
of it altogether.
However,
the debt."
to
the earnestnestness of his present prayer " the lord of
that servant was moved loith compassion, and loosed him, andforgave him
The
severity of
it is
God only endures

;
till
the sinner
is
brought
recognize his guilt,
indeed, like Joseph's harshness with his bre-
thren, nothing
having brought him
and having done its work, more than love in disguise to the acknowledgment of his guilt and misery, reloosing the bands of his sins and letting
the debt,"* a.nd thus this
appears as grace again, granting him more than even he had dared to
ask or
to hope,
him go
free.
His lord "forgave him
very reckoning with him,
* Compare Chardin {Voy. en Perse, Langles' ed.,
v. 5, p.
285)
Toute disgrace
en Perse emporle infalliblement avec
soi la
confiscation des biens, et c'est
un reverse
prodigieux et epouvantable que ce changement de fortune, car un honime se trouve
denue en un
suite.
ille,
instant
si
entierement
qn'il n'a rien
lui.
. .
.
On
lui
ote ses biens, ses es-
claves, et quelquefois jusqu'a sa
femme
et ses
enfans
Son
sort s'adoucit
dans
la
Le
roi declare sa volontc sur
son
sujet.
On
lui
rend presque toujours sa famil
partie de ses esclaves, et ses meubles, et assez souvent

retabli
revient au bout d'un
temps a etre
dans
les
bonnes graces de
la cour, et
a rentrer dansles emploia.

which
at
first
123
been
threatened him with irremediable ruin, might have

all
;
the chiefest
so bringing
mercy of
it,
bringing indeed his debt to a head, but only
that
it
might be put away.

in the dark.
So
is it
evermore with men.

;
God will forgive but he will have the sinner to know what and how much he is forgiven he summons him with that " Come now and let us reason together," before the scarlet is made white. (Isai. i. 18.) The sinner shall have the sentence
There cannot be a forgiving
;
of death in him
first, for
only so will the words of
life
and pardon have
any true meaning But he

(Wisd.
it
for
him.
xii.
by
his
mercy was shown did not receive it aright 5 he forgot it, and showed that he had forgotten conduct towards his fellow-servant. For going out from the preto
whom
;)
this
19
too soon
sence of his lord, he found, immediately

the sense of
liis
after, as
would seem, and when
lord's
goodness should have been yet fresh upon him,

lolio
'^
" one of Idsfellow-servants
oiced
hhn an hundred pence."

out'''
How striking
and instructive
is
that
word
going
slight as
it
seems, yet one of
the key- words of the parable.
of acting as this servant
For how is it that we are ever in danger Because we "go out" of the presence of our
God
because we do not ahide there, with an ever-lively sense of the

sin,
is
greatness of our
vant's going out
and the greatness of his forgiveness.
By
the ser-
expressed the sinner's forgetfulness of the greatness
of the benefits which he has received from his God.*
The term
'^fel-
low-servant" here does not imply any equality of rank between these
two, or that they

both in the
is
filled
similar offices
f but indicates that they stood
same
relation of servants to a
common
lord.
And
the
sum
so small, one hundred pence,
talents,
as the other was
so large, ten thousand
to
show how
little
with the amount in which every

in
man can offend against his brother, compared man has offended against God, % so that,
to those are as
Chrysostom's words, these offences
a drop of water to
the boundless ocean.
The whole demeanour

graphically described
;
of the
man
in
regard of his fellow-servant
is
"
He
h tw
laid
hands on him, and look Iwn hy
the
* Theophylact
Oih\i yap
Qeij îvwv, davinraOfii'
t Such would have been

X
biinSovXos, this is (riJi-ôuXos.
The Hebrew
talent =:
300
shekels. (Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26.)
Assuming
this,
the
proportion of the two debts would be as follows
10000
that
is,
talents
100 pence
fifty
::
1250000
1.
one million two hundred and

:
thousand to one.
ponitur, ut sciamus nos valde multa et
si
Melancthon
Ideo autem tanta
summa
magna magna
peccata habere coram Deo.

est securitas carnalis,
Sicut facile invenies multa,
vitam tuam aspicies
magna
negligentia in invocatione,
magna
diffidentia, et
multaj dubitationes de Deo.
Item vagantur sine
fine cupiditates varise.
124
throat* saying,
in the original,

Pay me
and
that thou owest."
When
some press the word

this servant's
find therein
an aggravation of
harsh-
ness and cruelty, as though he was not even sure whether the debt were
owing or not,f this is on every ground to be rejected. That the debt he found a fellow-servant " who owed was owing is plainly declared ;" and the very point of the whole parable would him an hundred pence
;
be
lost
by the supposition
that
we had
it
;
here an oppressor or extortioner
of the
common
;
sort.
In that case
would not have needed
to
speak a
parable of the kingdom of heaven
the law
would have condemned such
a one
but here
right,
we have
a far deeper lore
namely
summum
this, that
it is
not
always
the
but often most wrong, the most opposite to right, to press

jus
our rights, thatinthe king dom of grace, the
may
be indeed
to
summa
injuria.
This
man was
one
who would
fain be
measured
by God in one measure, while he measured to his brethren in another. But this may not be each man must take his choice he may dwell in but then, receiving grace, he must show grace the kingdom of grace If on the contrary he exacts the finding love, he must exercise love. uttermost, pushes his rights as far as they will go, he must look to have the uttermost exacted from him, and in the measure that he has meted It was in vain that ''his fellowto have it measured back to him again. servant fell down at his feet, and besought him," using exactly the same words of intreaty which he, in the agony of his distress, had used, and using had found mercy he continued inexorable ; he " went," that is, departed, dragging the other with him till he could consign him into
;
the safe keeping of the jailor; and thus in the words of St. Chrysostom, he refused " to recognize the port in which he had himself so lately es-
caped shipwreck ;" but delivered over

revoking his
his fellow-servant to the
extreme
severity of the law, unconscious that he
was condemning
himself, and
own mercy.
is
But such
man,
so hard-hearted and cruel,
when he walks otherwise

;
than in a constant sense of forgiveness received from God

or forgetfulness of his
el to others
;
ignorance
own
guilt
makes him
is
harsh, unforgiving, and cruis
or if by chance he
not so, he
only hindered from being
by the weak defences of natural character, which may at any moment be broken down. The man who knows not his own guilt, is ever
so
Erasmus: 'En^viyey, obtorto collo trahebat,
pertinetadvi tralientem vel in car-
cerem, vel in judicem.

t
The
ti
Ti
i(pci\cii, is
which reading, as the more
difficult, is to
be preferred to
Lachmann, does not imply any doubt as to whether but the conditional form was originally, though of the debt were really due or no course not here, a courteous form of making a demand, as there is often the same
6ipci\eii,
and which
retained by
;
courteous use of IVuf
THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT,

ready
''
X25
sin,
to
exclaim, as David in the time of his worst

that hath
(2
Sam.
xii. 5,)
The man
it is
done
is
this thing shall surely die ;" to
be as extreme
in
judging others, as he
slack in judging himself; while, on the other

to
hand,
they that are spiritual
whom
Paul commits the restoring

fault ;" (Gal. vi. 1 ;)
of a brother
who should be "overtaken
in a
and
when he urges on Titus the duty of being gentle, and showing meekness unto all men, he adds, (Tit. iii. 3,) " For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures."
that passage, (Matt. i. 19,) in which man,"* would not make Mary a public example, whom yet he must have believed to have done him grievto be humane is human ; ous wrong. It is just in man to be humane, In exact
harmony with
this
view
is
it is
said that Joseph, " being ^just
none but the altogether righteous

he will do so or no
sense of his
is
may
press his utmost rights
whether
determined by altogether different considerations,
but he has not that to hold his hand, which every
man
has, even the
own proper
in
guilt.
is
(John
viii.
7-9.)
But not
heaven only
there indignation,
when men
are thus mea-
suring 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 the obligations which it lays on him and who grieve over all the lack of love
and lack of forbearance which they behold around them

fellow-servants saw what was sorry
done, they were very sorry.''
;
"
When
his
their lord (ver.
34) was wroth
to
them
grief, to
They were him anger, is

grounds.
In
ascribed.
The
distinction is not accidental, nor without

his
its
man, the sense of

sin he sees
his
own
guilt,
the deep consciousness that whatever

exists in its
come
to ripeness in another,
germ and seed

sin of
to
in
own
heart, the feeling that all flesh is one,
and that the
one
calls for humiliation from all, will ever cause
sorrow
be the predomiis
is,
nant feeling in his heart,

before his eyes
;
but in
when the spectacle of moral evil God the pure hatred of sin,"j- which
Lord
all that
brought
indeed,
his love of holiness at its negative side, finds place.
" came and
told unto their
Being sorry, they was done ;" even as the righte-
* AiKatn;,
which Chrysostom makes there
= ^pnaTos,
l-msiKfu.
On
the
language of Scripture, attributing anger, repentance, jealousy to God,
there are some very valuable remarks in Augnstine's reply to the cavils of a Manichaean (Con. Adv. Leg. et Proph., 1. 1, c. 20) Pcsnitentia Dei non est post errorem Ira Dei non habet perturbati animi ardorem Misericordia Dei non habet compatientis miserum cor Zelus Dei non habet mentis livorem. Sed poenitentia Dei dicitur rerum
:
in ejus potestate constitutarum

cati
:
hominibus inopinaia mutatio

;
Ira Dei est vindicta pec-
Misericordia Dei est bonitas opitulantis
Zelus Dei est providentia qua non sinit

Cf.
eos quos subditos habet impune amare quod prohibet.
Ad
Simplic,
I.
2, qu. 2.
126
ous complain
that are
to

God, and mourn
in their sight
:
in their
prayer over the oppressions
wrought
the things which they cannot set right
themselves, the wrongs which they are not strong enough to redress themselves, they can at least bring unto him, and he hears their cry.
The king summons

sence,
the unthankful and unmerciful servant into his preto
and addresses
him words of severest rebuke, which
it
is
no-
ticeable he had not used before for his debt's sake, but
account of his cruelty
gave
thee all that debt,
now he uses on and ingratitude " Q thou wicked servant,* Iforbecause thou desiredst me : shouldest not thou also
wert thou bound, was not a moral compassion, even compassion had been shown
not
have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee ?"
there
obligation on thee, to
to thee ?
show
as
We may
needing
here observe, that the guilt laid to his charge
is
this, not that,
mercy, he refused
unmerciful
still
;
to
show
it,
but that having received mercy he remains

!
a most important difference
so that they
who
like
him
are hard-hearted and cruel, do not thereby bear witness that they
;
have received no mercy

that having received
on the contrary, the stress of their offence

infinite
is,
an
mercy, they remain unmerciful yet.

for the
we have been made partakers in our baptism benefit, stands firm, whether we allow it to exercise a purifying, fying, humanizing influence on our hearts or not. Our faith
that
The objective away sin and
fact, the
great
mercy
world, that Christ has put
of that
sancti-
appre-
hends, indeed, the benefit, but has not created
it,
any more than our
opening our eyes upon the sun has

"
set
it
in the
heavens.
was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors," according to that word, " He shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy." (Jam. ii. 13.) Before he had dealt with him
his lord
And
" The as a creditor with a debtor, now as a judge with a criminal. tormentors " are not merely the keepers of the prison as such ; but those
who
to
also, as the
;
word
implies, shall
make
and
the
life
of the prisoner bitter
him
even as there are " tormentors "
in that
world of woe, whereof
this prison is a figure
fellow-sinners
evil angels
it
instruments of
strange that the
the just, yet terrible judgments of God.:}:
But here
is
* Bengel
Sic
non vocatus fuerat ob debituni,
remark whicli Origen and
Chrysostom had already made.

t See Chrysostom,
X
Be
Simult., Horn. 20, 6, an admirable discourse.
Grotius
makes
the (iaaaviaTui merely
= icapoipiâKCi, and
;
Kuinoel,
who
observes
that debtors are given to safe keeping, but not to tortures
but this seems rather in-
accurately stated, since
we know,
tlie
for instance, that in early times of
Rome
there were
certain legal tortures, in
shape, at least, of a chain weighing fifteen pounds, and a

life,
pittance of food barely eufTicient to sustain

136,)
(see
Arnold's Hist, of Eome,
v. 1, p.
which the creditor was allowed
to apply to the debtor for the purpose of bring-

king delivers the offender
to prison
i2J
for his ingra-
and
to
punishment not
him.
titude or cruelty, but for the very debt
which would appear before

to
to
"When Hammond says, that the king " revoked his designed mercy," and would transfer that to the relation between God and sinners, this is an exampie of those evasions of a difficulty by help of an ambiguous expression, or a word ingeniously thrust in by the commentator, which are so frequent even in some of the best interpreters of Scripture.
It
have been entirely and without conditions remitted
was not
merely a mercy designed, the king had not merely jmrposed

gave him
the debt."
to forgive
him, but in the distinct words of the earlier part of the parable he "for-
An
ingenious explanation
is
is
that
which would
make
that
the debt for
which he
Paul's, "
now
no
cast into prison, the debt of
mercy
to
and love, which he had not paid, but which yet was due, according
word of
St.
Owe
man
ii.),
anything, but to love one an-
other ;" but neither can this be accepted as satisfactory.
Nor
are the
cases of Adonijah and Shimei (1 Kin.

altogether in point.
which are sometimes adduced,
They no
doubt, on occasion of their later offences,
were punished
had
it
far
more severely than probably they would have been,

;
not been for their former offences
yet
still
it
is
not the former
crimes which are revived that they

offence which calls
may
be punished, but the later
down its own punishment; and moreover, to produce parallels from the questionable acts of imperfect men, is but a poor
way of establishing the righteousness The question herein involved. Do

sinner through his after offences
? is
of God.
sins,
once forgiven, return on the

parable,
one frequently and fully discussed

this
by the Schoolmen
ing him to terms
;*
and of course
and the arguments

The
old
and no doubt they ofien did not stop here.

:
centurion
(LivY, 2. 23) complains

et carnificinam esse
:
Ductum
is
se ab creditore
non
in serviiium, sed in
eigastulnm
inde ostentare
tergum, fcsdum recentibus vestigiis vulnerum.
In the East, too, where there

poorest, and
a continual suspicion that those
who may appear

in
the
who
affirm themselves utterly insolvent, are actually in possession of

is
some
the
secret hoards of wealth, as
very often the case, the torture
(/iutnii'o?,)
one shape or
to
another, would be often applied, as
we know
that
it
is
often
life is
nowadays,
often
make
debtor reveal these hoards

for the purpose of
or
if
not with this hope, his
made
bitter tc
him
wringing the money demanded, from the compassion of his friends.
In
all
these cases the jailer
would be naturally the instrument employed

(see 1 Kin. xxii.
for
the puris
pose of inflicting these pains on the prisoner;
27
;)
so that there
no
reason
why we
should understand by these " tormentors," merely the keepers of the
prison, " the jailers," as Tyndale's
and Cranmer's Bibles give

if
it,
and not rather accept
the
word
in its proper sense.
Besides,
the unforgiving servant had merely been
given into ward, his punishment would
now have
been
less
than that with which he
was threatened, when his offence was not near so great as now it had become for then he was to have been sold into slavery. * By Pet. Lombard, 1. 4, dist. 22 Aquinas {Sum. TAeoZ.,pars 3, qu. 88,) and IL
;
228
which may be drawn from it, always take a prominent place in such But it may be worthy of consideration, whether the difficulties do not arise mainly from our allowing ourselves in too dead and ; from our sufformal a way of contemplating the forgiveness of sins
discussions.
fering the earthly circumstances of the remission of a debt to embarrass
the heavenly truth, instead of regarding them as helps, but at the
same
time weak
and often failing ones, for the setting forth that truth.
One
cannot conceive of remission of sins apart from living communion with Christ ; this is one of the great ideas brought out in our baptismal service, that
we
are
But
fall
if
through sin
members of a righteous Person and justified in him. we cut ourselves off from communion with him, we
which
is
back
into a state of nature,

state
of itself a state of condemnation
and death, a
upon which therefore the wrath of God is abiding. If then, laying apart the contemplation of a man's sins as a formal debt, ^\ hich must either be we contemplate the life out forgiven him or not
of Christ as a state of wrath, and the

the
first
life
in Christ as a state of grace,

light,
;
a walking
in darkness,
and the other a walking in the

sins should return
we
is,
can
better understand
falls
how a man's
back
into the
upon him
that
he sinning anew
darkness out of which he had been

abide more
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

is,
to
terribly on that state in

V. 14.)
which he now must not be
and therefore upon him.

out of sight that
all
(John
Even
as also
it
left
forgiveness
find
short of the
crowning act of forgiveness and mercy, which will

conditional,
place on the day of judgment, and will be followed by a total impossibility
of sinning any more,
is
in the
very nature of things so
conditional, that the condition

stated or no
;
must
in
every case be assumed, whether

the forgiven
that condition being that

in that state
man
abide in faith
and obedience,
of grace into which he has been brought
which he
whom
the unmerciful servant here represents, had not done,
but on the contrary evidently and plainly showed by his conduct, that
he had " forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." partake of the final salvation must abide in Christ, else he
forth as a branch,
He
that
is to
will be " cast
and withered." (John xv. 6.)
This
is
the condition,
not arbitrarily imposed from without, but belonging to the very essence
of the salvation
DE Sto Victore.
deant.)
Cf.
itself;
as, if
one were drawn from the raging sea, and

2, pars 14, c. 9
1.
(Z>e
Sacram
1.
Utrum peccata semel
diinissa re-
Augustine, De Bapt., Con. Don.,

of
1, c. 12.
Cajetan, quoting
Rom.
xi.
29, "the
gifis
God
are without repentance," {Antrafd'XnTa^ explains thus the recalling
of the pardon which had once been granted: Repetuntur debita semel donata, non ut
fuerant prius debita, sed ut
the decision of Aquinas.
mod6
efiecla sunt materia ingratitudinis,
which
is
exactly

set
129 would be wais
upon the safe shore, the condition of
his continued safety
that he abode there, and did not again cast himself into the raging
ters.
In this point of view an interesting parallel will be supplied to
this parable
light,
by
John
i.
7,
"If we walk
sin."
in the light as
he
in the
we have
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ

all
his
Son cleanseth us from

therefore,
He whom
falls
this servant represents
does not abide in the light of love, but
back
into the old darkness
he has,
no fellowship with his brother, and the cleansing
power of that blood ceases from him.

It is
familiar to
many
that the
Romish theologians have

words "
till
often found
an argument
for purgatory, in the
he should jiay all thai

;
was
it
due,"* as on the parallel expression. Matt.
v.
26
as though they desig-
nated a limit beyond which the punishment should not extend.
But
seems plain enough

the extreme
that the phrase
is
nothing more than a proverbial
one, to signify that the offender should
now be
dealt with according to
rigour of the law
;-|-
that
he should have justice without

off his debt.
mercy, that always paying, he should never have paid

since
For
man
it
could never acquit the slightest portion of the debt in which
he
is
indebted to God, the putting that as a condition of his liberation,
which
ble
was impossible could ever be
fulfilled,
was
the strongest possi;
way
of expressing the eternal duration of his punishment
just as,
re-
when
the Phocseans abandoning their city swore that they

it
would not
turn to
again,
till
the
mass of iron which they plunged

it
into the sea
appeared once more upon the surface,
was
in fact the
most emphatic
;
form
they could devise of declaring that they

is
would never return
such an emphatic expression
the present.:}:
:
shall
The Lord concludes with a word of earnest warning " So likewise my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts ^forgive
" So"
not every one his brother their trespasses."
with
the
same rigour
it,
* See Gerhard's Loci Theoll.,

Tcari Siqi'CKws, ovre yap aTroduxret ttotc,
loc.
27,
c. 8.
Chrysostom rightly explains
tov-
and Augustine (De Serm. Dom. in Mon.,\.
1, c.
11)
Donee
solvas....miror
solvet, seci
si
non earn
significat
pcenam quse vocaturaeterna.

solvere, ad
SoRemigius
solvere.
is
Semper
nunquam
persolvet.
t Just as the
+
Roman
proverbs,
Ad numum
extremum assem
to pass
Just so
Macbeth thinks he has
the strongest assurance of safety, while that
put
as a condition of his defeat, which he counts can never

" Let
Till
I
come
them
fly all
Birnam wood remove

fear."
vi. k j/'i'x^s.
to
Dunsinane
merely of acts of
vindicvestris,
cannot taint with
'Atto rwf Kap6iwv

hostility,
Ephes.
to the exclusion, not
but also of
all jivriaiKaKia.
;
tam, nee corde reservet malitiam

ut
H. de Sto Victore: Ut nee opere exerceat and Jerome Dominus addidit, de cordibus
;
omnem
simulationem
fictee
pacis averteret.
30

He who
such treasures of wrath, as well as such treasures of grace, are with

him.
could so greatly forgive, can also so greatly punish.
that he says,
Chrysostom observes,
imply
relationship
my heavenly
Father, meaning to
yours he will not be, since so acting you will have denied the
;
but this observation can scarcely be correct, since our
Lord
to the
often says.
My
Father,
(as ver. 19.)
On
the declaration itself
when no such reason can be assigned. we may observe that, according
view given in Scripture, the Christian stands in a middle point,

a
the
mercy received and a mercy yet needed. Sometimes for showing mercy " forgiving one another as Christ forgave you ;" (Col. iii. 13 Ephes. iv.
between
first
is
urged upon him as an argument
sometimes the last, " Blessed are the merciful, for they shall " obtain mercy ; " (Matt. v. 7 ;) "Forgive and ye shall be forgiven ;
32
:)
(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
to look
his
own
sins
"
!
so that while he is ever
back on the mercy received as the source and motive of the

also looks
mercy which he shows, he

yet needs, and which he
is
forward
to the
mercy which he
assured that the merciful, according to what
Bengel beautifully
receive, as a
calls the
Benigna
to
its
:
talio
of the kingdom of God, shall
new
provocation
some good remarks upon

cy
is
this point
abundant exercise. Tholuck has " From the circumstance that mermerciful
here [Matt.
part,
it
v. 7]
promised as the recompense of anterior mercy

'
on our
might indeed be inferred that under
'
we
;
are to
imagine such as have not yet in any degree partaken of mercy

sion consisted in an isolated act,
all.
but this
conclusion would only be just on the supposition, that the divine compas-
which could be done
to
man
but once for
Seeing, however, that
it
is
an act which extends over the whole

its
life
of the individual, and reaches

to
culminating point
in eternily,
it
behooves us
consider the compassion of
God
for
man, and man

for
for
his brethren, as reciprocally calling forth
and aflbrding a basis
one
another."*
And
this seems the explanation
of a difficulty suggested
by Origen,f namely, where in time we are to place the transactions for on the one hand, there arc reasons shadowed forth in this parable
!
why
it
they should be placed at the end of this present dispensation, since, might be asked, when else docs God take account with his servants
for
condemnation or acquittal? while yet on the other hand,
if
it
were
thus placed at the end of the dispensation, what further ôpportunity
* Auslegung der Bcrgpredigt,

t
p.
93.
Comm.
in Mallh., xviii.
THE LABOURERS IN THE VINEYARD.

would there be
for the forgiven servant to
131
which he
show
?
the harshness
actually does show to his fellow-servant
The
difficulty disappears,
when we no
forward,
life.*
longer contemplate forgiveness as an isolated act, which

at
must take place
some
definate
moment, but consider

with and
it
as ever going
as
running parallel
extending over the entire
PARABLE
IX.
THE LABOURERS
This parable stands
in
IN
THE VINEYARD.
Matthew
xx. 1-16.
closest connexion with the four last verses of
the preceding chapter, and can only be rightly understood by their help, so that the actual division of the chapters
is
here peculiarly unfortunate,
causing, as
it
has often done, this parable
to
be explained quite indepen-
dently of the context, and without any attempt to show the circumstances
out of which
it
sprung.
And
yet on the right tracing of this connexion,
* There
V. 2, p. 334.)
is
a fine story illustrative of this parable, told hy Fleury, {Hist. Eccles.,

It is
briefly this.
Between two Christians
at
Antioch enmity and di-
vision
other,
had
fallen out.
After a while one of them desired to be reconciled, but the
who was
the
a priest, refused.
While
it
was thus with them,
the persecution of
Valerian began; and Sapricius, the priest, having boldly confessed himself a Christian,
was on
way
again refused.
of execution.
fice to the
to death. Nicephorus met him and again sued for peace, which wag While he was seeking and the other refusing, they arrived at the place
He
that should have been the martyr
was here
terrified, oflêred to sacri-
gods, and despite the entreaties of the other did so,
making shipwreck of his

with our parable.
faith:
while Nicephorus, boldly confessing, stepped in his place, and received the
lost.
crown which Sapricius

fore Sapricius could
This whole story runs
finely parallel
to Christ,
Be-
have had grace to confess thus

;
he must have had his
own
ten thousand talents forgiven

the di'^pleasure he
but refusing to forgive a far lesser wrong, to put

infinitely lighter
away
had taken up on some
grounds against his brother,
he
forfeited all the
advantages of his position, his Lord was angry, took away from his
grace, and suffered
been once delivered.
him again to fall under those powers of evil from which he had It comes out, too, in this story, that it is not mei-ely the outward wrong and outrage upon a brother, which constitutes a likeness to the unmerciful serthe unforgiving temper, even
1, qu.
vant, but
apart from
.
all
such.
So Augustine
{QucBst.
Evang.,
1.
25)
Noluit ignoscere,
illi
intelligendum, tenuit contra
eum hunc
animum,
ut supplicia
vellet.
132
THE LABOURERS
IN
THE VINErARD.
of,
and the showing how the parable grew out

to,
and was
in fact
an answer
Peter's question, "
tion will
What shall we have?" the success of the exposimainly depend. The parable now to be considered is only secUnjust Steward in the number of explanations,* and
it
;
ond
to that of the
those the most widely different, that have been proposed for
also only second to that, if indeed second, in the difficulties
it.
as
it is
which beset
I
These Chrysostom f
states clearly
and strongly
though few,
is first
think,
will be wholly satisfied with his solution of them.
There
the dif-
ficulty of bringing the parable into

it is
harmony with
it
the saying
by which
introduced and concluded, and which

:
is
plainly intended to illus-
trate
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,

is
namely, how can one who
himself a
it,
"be
held," as Chrysostom terms
member of the kingdom of God "by that lowest of all passions, enmurmurers and
and
ulti-
vy, and an evil eye," grudging in his heart the favours shown to other
members of that kingdom envious are members of
or, if
it
be denied that these

is
that
kingdom, how
all
this denial reconcilable
with the fact of their having laboured
day
?
in the vineyard,
mately carrying away their own reward

ficulty of deciding
trine
And
lastly, there is the dif-
what
to
is
the salient point of the parable, the

it.
main docthey,
which we are
those
gather from
Of
who have sought

to all,
to interpret
it
there are
first
who
see in the equal penny
the
key
to the
whole matter, and who say
that the lesson to be learned is this,
the equality of rewards in the kingin his ear-
dom
lier
of God.:}:
This was the explanation which Luther gave

to
works, though he afterwards saw reason

this
alter his opinion.

it
But
however
may
appear
to
agree with the parable,
evidently agrees
* Hase, {Lehen Jesu,

sisting of
p. 147,) gives the literature
connected with
this parable,
;
con-
no
less
than fifteen essays, most of them separately published

titles
and has yet
omitted some, of which the

t In Matth., Horn. 64.
X
are given in
Wolf's
Curee.
Augustine also (Serm. 343) says of the penny to
all
Denarius
ille
vita ffiterna
;
est, quae
all
omnibus par
est,
but without affirming equality
in the
kingdom of God
for
the stars, as he goes on to say, are in the

in
from another star

gin., c. 26.
In like
7, c. 11,
same firmament, yet " one star differeth Cf. De Sand. Virglory :" (Splendor dispar, cesium commune.) manner Bernard, In Ps. Qui habitat, Serm. 9, 4 and see Am;
brose, Ep.
this
and Gregory the Great, Moral.,
1.
4, c. 36.
he says
Yet Spanheim {Duh. Evung., v. Nee enim per denarium

:
3, p. 785) is not easily
answered, when against
vita ajterna intelligi potest, quippe qui denarius

illis
datur eliam murmuratoribus et invidis, nee datus exsaliat, et datur
qui recedere
jubentur a Domino, (ver. 14.)
Atqui nee murmuratorum portio
est vita aeterna,
nee
invidorum, nee homines a Deo abducit, sed conjungit
cum
illo,
nee uUi datur, cui non
plenam adferat satietatem gaudiorum.

not at
tration
133
" Many
that
all
with the saying, of which that
is
clearly meant to be the illus-
that are first shall he last,
and
for that equality
would
be,
the last shall he first
;"*
not a reversing of their order, but a setting

is
of
all
upon a
level.
Others affirm that the parable
meant to
set forth this
truth,
God does
not regard the length of time during

fidelity
which men are
occupied in his work, but the

they accomplish that work.-]sion to speak
and strenuous exertion with which

there will presently be occato
Of this view
it
more
at large,
will be
enough now
this
observe that the
assumption that the last-hired labourers had worked more strenuously

than the
first, is
entirely gratuitous
it,
circumstance,
if
the narrative
had turned on
asserts that
its
would have scarcely been omitted.

is to
;
Calvin
again
purpose
warn us against being

is
over-confident, be-
cause
we have begun
well
\ lest (though this
not his illustration),

in
like the hare in the fable,
growing careless and remiss

:
our exertions,
first, fall
we
allow others to outrun us
and so having seemed the

he put
his
into
the hindmost rank,
that
it
conveys a warning that no one begin

till
off"
to boast,
or consider the battle won,

this
armour.
But neither
in
will
agree with the circumstances of the parable, since the labourers

first
who
were
engaged are not accused of having grown slack
labour dur-
ing the latter part of the day.
There are others who make
not the
penny equal
to all,
but the suc-
cessive hours at which the different bands of labourers were hired, the
most prominent circumstance of the parable.
And
these interpreters
may
ary,
be again subdivided, for there are
first
those who, as Origen and Hil-
of the diflferent summonses to a work of God has made to men from the beginning of the to Moses, and lastly to to Abraham, to Noah, to Adam, world, the apostles, bidding them each, in his order, to go work in his vineyard.
make
it
to contain a history
righteousness, which
Of these,
sations,
all
the earlier lived during
weaker and more imperfect dispenin that they
and underwent, therefore, an harder labour,

gifts
had not
the
such abundant
of the Spirit, such clear knowledge of the grace of
God
in Christ, to sustain them, as the later called, the
members of
Christian Church.
Their heavier toil, therefore, might aptly be
set forth
* Fritzche, indeed, finds no difficulty in giving the sense of the
gnome
thus
Qui
postremi ad Messiam se adplicuerunt, primis accensebuntur, et qui primi

sunt, postremis
:
eum
secuti
but
:
this is
doing evident violence to the words.
So Maldonatus
Finis parabolse est
mercedem
vitae
;
aBternse
non tempori quo

the same.
quis laboravit, sed labori et operi quod fecit respondere

\
and Kuinoel
If
Non
alio
Dominum
spectasse
quam
ut suos
ad pergendum continuis stimulis in-
citaret.
Scimus enim segnitiem

itself,
fere
ex nimia fiducia nasci.
we
it
;
found, indeed, the

see the admirable in this regard.
gnome by
we might
then say that such was his purpose in
use which Chrysostom {In Matth., Horn. 67, adfinem)
makes of it,
134
by
THE LABOURERS
IN
THE VINEYARD.
more oppressive time of the
a longer period of work,

;
and that
;)
at the
day
(compare Acts xv. 10
while the apostles, and the rest of the
faithful
who were
called into God's vineyard at the eleventh hour, (the
last time, or the last hour, as St.
dispensation,) and
was now given

regard
in
John [1 Ep. ii. 18] calls the Christian were made partakers of the larger, freer grace that But in Christ, had to endure little by comparison.
it
to this explanation,*
may
be asked, when could that
murmuring
Those prior
have taken place, even supposing the people of God could thus grudge
because of the larger grace freely bestowed upon others?
generations could not have so
things were even revealed
murmured in their lifetime, for before the which God had prepared for his people that
graves.
came
fect.
after,
they were
in their
Far
less is
it
to
be conceived as
per-
finding place in the
day of judgment, or
in the
kingdom of love made

to
Unless, then,
we
quite explain
away
the
it
murmuring, and say with

magnify the greatness
Chrysostom, that the Lord only introduced

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 provoked
to
murmur
at the
comparison of themselves with their
more richly endowed successors, were it possible to imagine that such a unless we accept feeling of envy could be entertained in their heart,
this ingenious solution of the difficulty, this explanation of the parable
seems almost untenable,

brought against
it.
as,
were
it
worth while,
much more might
be
Then
there are, secondly, they who, in the different

different periods of
;
hours
at
which the labourers are hired, see the
men's
lives, at
which they enter on the work of the Lord

is to
and who affirm that

late
the purpose
encourage those who have entered

them, since they
too, if only
on his service,
now
to
labour heartily, not allowing the consciousness of past neglito dispirit
gences
they will labour with their

full re-
might
for the time,
long or short, which remains, shall receive a
ward with the

Were
for
it is it
rest.
This
John
is,
in the main,
Chrysostom's view jf but

most interesting
parallel
the right one,

is
iv.
35-38 would
afford a
exactly this which
there declared.
The
''
other
men"
that laboured (ver. 38)
went before, doing their harder tasks under the Law, breaking up the fallow ground of men's hearts, and wiih toil and tears sowing their seed, this would answer to the bearing here the burden and heat of the day. The blessedness of the disciples is there magnified, in that theirs is an easier task, the reaping and
are the generations that
gathering in of the spiritual harvest
they enter upon other men's labours
which
is
the counterpart to the coming into the vineyard at the eleventh hour.
feeling of the
first
But the true

is
laboureis and of the last, of the hardest-tasked and the lightest,
there also declared, the only feeling which could find place in the
kingdom of God,
they " rejoice together," (ver. 3G,) are unenvying partakers of the same joy.
t
And
also Jerome's
{Comm.
in Maith.)
Mihi vidcntur primze horaj esse operarii
Samuel
et Jeremias et Baptista Johannes, qui possunt
cum
Psalmista dicere.
Ex
utero
THE LABOURERS
while,
IN
THE VINEYARD.
may
If that
"[35
under certain
limitations,
such encou-ragement
another thing
to
undoubtis
edly be drawn from the parable,
it is
say that this
the
admonishment which
interpretation, in
it is
especially meant to convey.
were the
what
living connexion
would the parable stand with

which occasioned
it,
what went
spirit
before, with Peter's question
or with the
out of which that question grew, and which this teaching of the
to
Lord was meant
meet and
to
correct
is
it
But the explanation which

certainly contains
very frequently offered, and which

than
all
more
is
truth in
that
which have hitherto been
passed under review,
which makes the parable a warning and a prophecy, of the causes which would lead to the rejection of the Jews,
first
the
called into the vineyard of the
Lord ; these causes being main-
ly their proud
appreciation of themselves and of their
own work
their
dislike at seeing the Gentiles, so long aliens

Israel, put
from the commonwealth of

to
on the same footing, admitted
at
once
equal privileges with

be-
themselves in the kingdom of

ing
Gcd
and an agreement or covenant

Doubtless
It
made with
is
the
first
hired, and none with those subsequently engaged,

this view.
this application
fulfilled
has seemed a confirmation of

the parable
of
in
by no means
to
be excluded.
was notably
the
Jews
their conduct did supply a

:
the warning here given

lar; this fulfilment
but
its
application
solemn confirmation of the need of is universal and not particu:
was only one out of many
for
our Lord's words are
so rich in meaning, so bring out the essential and permanent relations
between man and God, that they are continually finding their fulfilment.
Had
this
or even primarily, in his eye,
however been the meaning which our Lord had exclusively, we should expect to hear of but two bands
first
of labourers, the
hired and the last
all
those
would only serve

cessive
ly,
to
confuse and perplex the image.
who come between The solution somesecond-
times given of this objection,
that the
first,
;
successive hirings are the suc;
summonses to the Jews

lastly, in the
under Moses and Aaron
under David and the kings

Samaritans,
thirdly,
under the Maccabsean chiefs
and priests; and

these are Jews,
ness,
time of Christ and his apostles; or that
and proselytes of greater or

to
less strict-
seems devised merely

its
tu.
escape from an embarrassment, and only

it.*
witnesses for
existence without removing
matris mesa Deus es

cseperunt.
Teniae vero horse operarii sunt qui in pubertate servire Deo
Sextae horje, qui matura aetata susceperunt

:
jugum
Christi
nonae, qui
jam
declinant ad senium
accipiuiit
porro undecimae, qui ultima senectute.
Et tamen omnes
pariter
praemium,
licet diversus labor sit.

,
* This explanation of the parablt- however,
is
maintained by, and

370, seq.)
it.
satisfies,
Grotius
for it
and
also
by Mr. Greswell, {Exp. of the Par.,

it is
v. 4, p.
who has done
everything whereof
capable, to
whi acceptance
for
136

is
Better then to say that the parable

per,
directed against a
wrong tem-
and
spirit
of mind, which indeed was notably manifested in the Jews,

all
but which not merely they, but

leges,
men
in possession of spiritual privi:
have need
to be,
and are here, warned against
while at the same
time the immediate occasion from which the parable rose, was not one
in
which they were involved.

in the Christian
This
is
clear, for the
warning was not
primarily addressed to them, but to the apostles, as the chiefest and fore-
most
vineyard "
toil
Church, the
earliest called to labour in the Lord's
the first,'"
both in time, and in the

to
amount of
suffering and
which they would have

(xix.
undergo.
They had
to
seen the rich young
man
22) go sorrowful away, unable
abide the proof by which
the Lord had mercifully revealed to

to the
him how strongly he was yet holden
world and the things of the world.

other instances,
is
They
be,
(for Peter here,
as in
all)
so
many
the representative and
spokesman of
this
all for
would
fain
know what
their
reward should
who had done

and
fully, that
very
thing from which he had shrunk, and had forsaken

sake, (ver, 27.)
as
the Gospel's
The Lord answers them
first
they and
same for his sake, should reap an abundant (ver. 28, 29.) reward, At the same time the question itself, " What it was putting their relation to shall we have ?" was not a right one there was a tendency in the question to their Lord on a wrong footing
many
as should do the
bring their obedience to a calculation of so
much work,
so
much reward.
There was
so
also a certain self-complacency lurking in this speech, not
much
a vain confidence in themselves, considered by themselves, as

others
a comparison for self-exaltation with
comparison between
themselves
and the
who had not shrunk back from the command to forsake all, young man who had found the requirement too hard for him.
of self-exalting comparison of ourselves with others, which
That
is
spirit
so likely to be stirring,
when we behold any

;
signal failure on their
part,
was
at
work
in
them
and the very answer which the Lord gave

fuel to the fire, unless
It is
it
to their question
would have been as
had been
accompanied with the warning of the parable.
true that this selfin Peter's
complacent thought was probably only as an under-thought

but the Lord,
mind, obscurely working within him, one of which he was himself hardly
conscious
;
who knew what was in man, saw
with a glance
to the direct
into the depths of his heart,
and having given an answer
question, went on
by
this further teaching, to nip at
the
lest
bud before
it
should proceed to
this
once the evil sprout in develope itself further. " Not of works,
the truth
any man should boast ;"

of,
was
which they were
in
danger
;
of losing sight
if nothing
and which he would now by the parable enforce

all
and
of works, but
of grace for
all,
then no glorying of one over
137
another could find place, no grudging of one against another, no claim as
of right upon the part of any.

First indeed the
Lord answered the question, " What

in sincerity
shall
we have ?"
it
As they in
sired to
deed and
had forsaken
be,
all for
Christ's sake, and de-
know what
their
reward should
he does not think

the
good
to
withhold the reply, but answers them fully,
reward
shall be great.
But having answered
so,
his discourse takes another turn,*
as
is suffi-
ciently indicated in the words, "
But many
that are first shall be last
;"
and he will warn them now against giving place too much
out of which the question
to that spirit
proceeded: for there was therein a pluming
of themselves upon their

selves with others, a
own work, an
to
invidious comparison of them-
certain attempt
bring in
God
as
their debtor.
it is
In short, the spirit of the hireling

this spirit that the parable
is
spoke in that question, and
against
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 passage supinteresting, that

is,
plies a parallel not indeed verbal, but a
more deeply
a real parallel with the present.
As
far as
is
it
is
addressed to Peter, and in him
to all true believers,

if
the parable
rather a warning against what might be,

it,
they were not

he.'f
careful to
watch against
than a prophecy of what would

in love as
For we
cannot imagine him who dwells
allowing himself in envious and
grudging thoughts against any of
his brethren, because,
though they have
entered later on the service of God, or been engaged on a lighter labour,

or rethey will yet be sharers with him of the same heavenly reward, fusing to welcome them gladly to all the blessings and privileges of the
communion of
Christ.
Least of
all
can we imagine him so
to forgot that
* Gerhard
ta, et
Sub finem,
quia Christo Petri et reliquorum confidentia non fuit ignosese aliis preeferrent,
et
verendum
erat ne ob magnificam lianc promissionein

concludit, qua ipsos et in primis
hunc
locum gravi sententia

continere cupit,
Petrum sub modestia
metu
refers
Muhi autem
primi erunt novissimi, et novissimi primi....Nolite ergo
ahum
sapere, nolite arroganter de vobis ipsis sentire.
So
also Olsliausen,
who
to ver.
20-28 of
this chapter, (of.
Mark
x. 35,) as
an evidence how
liable the
promise
(xix. 28)
was
to be perverted
and misunderstood by the old man which was not yet But the whole matter has been strangely reversed by
in the parable
wholly mortified in the apostles.
some, who instead of a warning and a caution here, see rather

ing up of what has been already spoken:
" You, the poor
a follow-
and despised, who might

the wise,
spiritual
seem
the last called, shall be
first
in the
the noble, and the rich, such, for instance, as that

chiefs of the
kingdom of God while the first, young man and all the
day of the Lord."
But
it
nation, shall be last in the
this
would indeed
the very pur-
have been
fuel to
fire
which rather needed slaking, and which
was
pose of the parable to
^ke.
10
t Bengel: Respectu Apostolorum non est praedictio sed admonilia,
138
he also
is
THE LABOURERS
IN
THE VINEYARD.
to
saved by grace, as to allow such hateful feelings

himself or
come
to
an head, actually to take form and shape, which they do in the parable,
as justifying them
to
to
God, like the spokesman among the

in
murmurers
"
here.
We cannot conceive this even here

much
less in the perfected
our present im;
perfect state, and
kingdom hereafter
for love
rejoices in the truth,"*
and the very
fact of
one so grudging against
another would prove that he himself did not dwell in love, and therefore
was himself under sentence of exclusion from that kingdom. f It is then a warning to the apostles, and through them to all believers, of what might be, not a prophecy of what shall be with any that share in the
final
reward
a solemn warning that however long continued their work,
abundant
their labours, yet if they had not this charity to their brethren,
this humility before
God, they were nothing might
that pride and a self-com-
placent estimation of their work, like the

the work, mility
;
fly in the
ointment, would spoil
however great
first
it
be, since that

fall
and from
they would
to last,
work stands only in huThere is then this difit
ference between the narration in the parable, and the truth of which
is
the exponent, that while
it
would not have been consistent with equity

to
for the
householder altogether
have deprived the
first
labourers of their
hire, notwithstanding their pride
and
their discontent, so that conse-
quently they receive their wages, and are not punished with more than a
severe rebuke, yet the lesson to be taught to Peter, and through him
all disciples in all
to
times,
is,
that the
first
may
be altogether
forget
last, that
those
who seem
is
chiefest in labour, yet, if they
withal that the
reward
of grace and not of works, and begin to boast and exalt them-
selves above their fellow-labourers,
may
altogether lose the things

last,
which
their
they have wrought
::j:
and those
who seem
the
may
;
yet,
by keeping
humility, be acknowledged
first in
day of God
and
is like
in proof of this,
the parable which follows was spoken. " The kingdom of heaven It commences thus
:
unto a
man
thai
is
an householder, which went out early

."
in the
morning
to
hire labourers
into his vineyard
in other words.
The manner
of God's dealings with
* In the beautiful worcl3 of Leighton (Pralect. 6.): '0 (pOunoi iîo tov Osiov x"?"^' sed caritas absolutissima, quaunusquisque simul cum sua alterius inutuo felicitate fruicoltetatus ; unde inter illos iiifinita qiiaedam tur et beatus est ilia scillicet tanquam sua beatiludinis repercussio et multiplicatio est ; quails foret splendor aula; auro et geniniis, vegum et magnatum clioro, nitentis, cujus parietcs speculis undique iucidissimis
pleno
obtecti essent.
t Gregory tbe Great says excellently (Horn. 19, in Evang.) on this

:
murmuring
Coslorum regnum nullus murmurans accipit nullus qui accipit, murmurare poterit. Great again {Moral., 1. 19, c. 21) Ferit <mine quod agitur, si non t Gregory the
:
soUicite in humilitate cusloditur.
THE LABOURERS
those
is,
IN
THE VINEYARD.
his Church,
139
whom
he calls
to the
privileges of working in
his
kingdom
in its present imperfect development..
that
is
similar to that
of an householder,
who went
early in the morning to hire labourers. *
This
ever true in the heavenly world, that God seeks his labourers, and not they him ; " You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."
is
(John XV. 16.)
Every summons
:
to a
work
in the
heavenly vineyard
;
is
from the Lord
man's heart never originates the impulse

is,
all
which
it is
is
man's
in the
matter
that he do not resist the
summons, which
It is
his
melancholy prerogative
to the instructive
that he
is
able to do.
:
" a call," according
Scriptural expression
is
but as in the natural world a
call implies
no force, but
something which
may
be obeyed or refused,
so also
is it in
the spiritual.
for a
The householder agreed with the first labourers The different terms upon which the different bands
their work,
penny a day.f
of labourers went to
were
to
be laid on
would scarcely have been so expressly noted, unless stress it. An agreement was made by these first-hired la-
bourers before they entered on their labour, exactly the agreement which while those subsePeter wished to make, " What shall we have ?"
quently engaged went in a simpler

right
spirit,
trusting that whatever
was
pre-
and equitable the householder would give them.
Thus we have
spirit
here upon the one side early indications of that wrong

sently
which
comes
to
an head; (ver. 11, 12
;)
on the other
side,
we have
is
the
true spirit of
will give far
humble waiting upon
the Lord, in full assurance that he
more than we can desire or deserve,
righteous to forget any labour of love,

in him,
him.:}:
that
God
not un-
that his servants
can safely trust
who is an abundant rewarder
of all them that seek and that serve
* Fleck
Non
in
und persona sed
in tola actione collatio
consistit
to
remark of
the
frequent application.
denarius, a
Roman
fact
;
silver
coin,
which passed current as equal

lighter.
It
Greek
drachm, though in
the
some few grains

pay.
was
8hd., at the latter end of

It
commonwealth
p.
afterwards, something less, of our money.
was not an uncom-
mon, though a
custom
liberal day's
(See Tob.
v. 14.)
Morier, in his Second Journey
through Persia,
265, mentions having noted

:
like that alluded to in the parable
" Here we observed every morning

collected with
fields.
in
the market-place at
Hamadan
before
the sun rose, that a
numerous band of peasants were
spades
in their
hands, waiting to be hired for the day to work in the surrounding

struck
This custom
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
re-
membered
cause no
t
his words,
'
Why
us.'
stand ye here
all
the
day
to
idle
?'
as
most applicable
us,
'
to
their situation, for
on putting the very same question

in a passage (In Cant.,
:
them they answered
Be-
man
hath hired
Thus Bernard,
Serm. 14, 4) containing
many
interesting
allusions this parable
Ille
[Judseus] pacto conventionis, ego placito voluntatis innitor.
140
At
THE LABOURERS
the third, at the
at
IN
THE VINEYARD.
ninth hour,
sixth,
and
at the
at nine
in the
morning,
midday, and
at three in the
afternoon,* he again went into
the market-place, f and those

his
vineyard. " And

idle,
whom
he found there disengaged, sent into
ahout
the eleventh
hour he went out and found

stand ye here all the day
is
others standing
idle?''''
and
saith unto them,

all
Why
All activity out of Christ,

is
labour that
not labour in his
Church,
no
in his sight a
standing
idle.
" They say unto him, Because

certain
man
hath hired us.''
There was a
amount of rebuke
in the
for
it
question,
which
It
it
is
intended that this answer shall clear

it
away
belongs to the idea of the parable, that

satisfactory.
is
shall be accepted as perfectly
not then in a Christian land,
where men grow up
under sacramental obligations, with the pure word of God sounding in or at least, only in such their ears, that this answer could be given
now presents, where in the Church multitudes have been allowed to grow up ignorant of the blessing which her communion affords, and the responsibilities it and even in their mouths there would only be a parlays upon them
woeful cases as that which our
own
land
bosom of
the
tial
truth in the answer, "
No man
hath hired us ;" since even they canIt
not be altogether ignorant of their Christian vocation.
would only be
when
"
it
the
kingdom of God
hired us,
is first set
up
in a land, enters as a
new and
hitherto
unknown power,
that sinful
men
with
full truth
could answer,
No manhath
it
has been because
Satan,
if we have been living in disobedience to God, we were ignorant of him, if we were serving was because we knew no other master, because we knew not
that there
was such a thing

fruit to the
as living for
his
bringing forth
honour of
God and name."
for his glory,
and
Yet while thus the excuse which the labourers in the parable plead, 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
appertains not
* 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,)

ccJnsiderably longer in
which parts must of course have been

;
summer
is
than in winter
for
though the difference between the

is
it
longest and the shortest day
not so great in Palestine, as with us, yet

is
by no
means
trifling
the longest day
diflference therefore of 4''
a 24, so that an hour on the longest day would be exactly

Q*"
of U*" 12 duration, the shortest of
48"", with
22"" longer than an hour on the shortest.
The
equinoctial hours did not
come
v.
into
p.
use until the fourth century.
(See the Diet, of Gr. and
Eom.
Antt.,
s.
Horn,
485.)
as the
Probably the day was also divided into the four larger parts here indicated, just
Roman
night into four watches, and indeed the Jewish no less
the four divisions
of the latter are given in a popular form,

J/e6.,v. l,p. 136.)
Mark
xiii.
35.
(See Sciioettgen's Ilor.
t Maldonatus
Totum mundum
qui extra Ecclesiam est.
THE LABOURERS
in his vineyard
IN
THE VINEYARD.
14^
to
while the unscriptural corollary cannot be appended

it
the pa'rable,* that

heartily
matters
little at
what time of men's
lives they enter
obligations
upon the service of God, how long they despise his vows and which have been upon them from the beginning ; yet one
that there
is
would not deny

as
such a thing even
in the Christian
men
being called,
long before,
or
Church
to
speak more correctly, since they were called

the calling and entering on God's service,
as
men obeying
at the third, or sixth, or ninth, or
even the eleventh hour.
Only
the case
of such will be parallel not

regard of being able
that of the son,
I0 that
of any of these labourers, at least in

did,
to make the same excuse as they who being bidden to go work in his
;
but rather to
father's vineyard,
refused, but afterwards repented and went (Matth. xxi. 28 ;) and such an one, instead of excusing and clearing himself as respects the past, which these labourers do, will on the contrary have deep repentance in
his heart, 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, " No man hath hired us," in a land where the
Christian faith has long been established, and the knowledge jpf
it
brought
home unto
such
;
all
men, the parable
is
not therefore without
its
application in
since there will be there also

at different periods,
many
entering into the Lord's
vineyard
even
to a late one,
of their
lives,
and who,
truly repenting their past \mprofitablencss, and not attempting to excuse

it,
may
find their
work, be
it
for a long or a short while, graciously acfull
cepted now, and

*
may
share hereafter in the
rewards of the kingdom.
The author
it it
of a
modern Latin
essay,
De Sera
to
if
Resipiscentid, anxious to rescue

it is
this part of ihe parable
from the dangerous abuse
which
often subjected, observes
that
should have been otherwise constructed,

:
from
sed
Oportuisset dixisse
operarios in
conducendum
isti
to be drawn regnum ooelorum simile est homini egresso alto mane, ad vineam suam. Invenit tales quibus fecit maxima promissa,
such a doctrine were
haec rejecerunt, praeferentes
manere
in foro ad
ludendum
et
compotandum. Re.
versus est hora tertia,
eadem
illisobtulit, et instantius
eos rogavit,sed absque fructu
Idem
fecil
hora sexta et nona, ipsius autem oblationes et promissiones semper fuerunt

Illi
in utiles.
quin etiam ipsum male exceperunt, ipsique proterve dixerunt, quod nolIpse ne sic quidem ofTensus, reversus est, cixm non nisi una diei
lent pro eo laborare.
hora superesset, eandemque obtulit
summam qukm mane.

momentaneo, tandem
Il!i
tunc videntes quod
summam
ventum.
et
illi,
tantam
lucrari possent labore
passi sunt hoc sibi per-
euaderi, spectantes
maxime quod
dies fere transactus foret ante

c.
suum
:
in
vineam ad-
6) has the
same
iilos
line
of thought
Numquid enim
nisi
qui sunt ad
vineam conducti, quando ad

tertia
exibat paterfamilias, ut conduceret

illuc
quos invenit hora
....
dixerunt
;
illi
Exspecta, non
nisi
imus
hora sextA
aut quos invenit hora sexla dixerunt
Non imus
hora nona
?
.... Omnibus enim

ille
tantumdem daturus
facturus
sit,
est: quare nos amplius fatigamur

est.
Quid
daturus
sit et
quid
penes ipsum consilium

c.
Tu quando
who
used
vocaris, veni.
this
Compare Gregory
Nazanxi., Orat. 40,
20, against those
parable as an argument for
deferring their baptism.
142
THE LABOURERS
belongs not
hast thou done ?" but "
IN
THE VINEYARD.
kingdom of God.
Foi' in truth time
to
the
Not "
How
which
much
What
art thou
now
;
?" will be the great

forget that all
still
question of the last day.
Of course we must never
men have
done will greatly aflect what they are
yet
the parable is
a protest against the whole quantitative appreciation of men's works, (the
Romanist,) as distinct from the qualitative, against

the
all
which would make
works the end and man
tlie
means, instead of the

that
the
works the means
against
man the end, and scheme which, however uncon-
sciously, lies at the root of so

this day. *
many
of the confusions in our theology at
the lord of the vineyard saith ujilo his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, heginning from the last unto
" So when evemvas come,
thefrst.'^
In bidding his steward to pa)' his labourers the
same evening,
he acted consistently with the merciful

joined concerning the hired servant,
his hire,
command
it,
of the law which en-
" At his day thou shalt give

for
him
and
Job.
neither shall the
sun go down upon

(Deut. xxiv. 15.
he
is
poor,
;
setteth his heart

vii.
upon
5
;
it."
v.
See Lev. xix. 13

Christ
is
Mai.
iii.
Jam.
Tob.
iv.
14.)
the steward, or
the overseer rather, set over all God's house.
(Heb.
iii.
John
v.
27;
Matth.
xi.
27.)
The whole economy
of salvation has been put into his

In obedience
hands, and in
to the
this,
of course, the distribution of rewards.
householder's
last
full
nired, those
commands the labourers are called together ; the who came in without any agreement made, receive a
is
penny.
Here
encouragement
for those that
have delayed
to
en-
ter
for
on God's service
till
late in their lives
not
encouragement
to delay,
we everywhere
*
find in Scripture a blessing resting
on early piety
is
This mechanical as opposed

all
to
the
dynamic idea of righteousness,
carried to
the greatest perfection of
in the Chinese theology.
des recompenses et desêines, the mechanic, or to

idea of righteousness, comes out with
all
Thus in that remarkable Livre speak more truly, the arithmetic

For example,
p.
possible distinctness.
trois mille
124
Pour dcvenir immortcl,

vertucuses.
il
faut avoir
amasse
merites, et huit cent actions
How glorious, on the other hand, are Thauler's words upon the way in which we may have restored to us " the years which the canker-worm has eaten"
(Joel
ii.
2.5)
Libet hie qucerere quo pacto deperditum tempus

sit
quis possit,
cum nullum
tam breve
et velox
temporis
unquam recuperare momentum, quod non totum
cum omni virtuteac facultatc nostrA Deo crcalori deboamus. Scd hie in parte consilium sanissimum prieslatur. Avcrtat se quisque cum omnibus tam supremis quum infimis viribus suis ab omni loco et tempore, seque in illud Nunc ffiternitatis recipiat, ubi Deus essentialiter in stabili quodam Nunc existit. Ibi neque prseterituni aliquid
est,
neque futurum.
scilicet,
Ibi
principium et
finis universi
temporis prEEsentia adsunt.

in
Ibi,
in in
Deo
deperdita omnia reperiuntur.

in
Et qui
hi
consuetudinem ducunt ssepius

fiunt
Deum
se
immergere alque
ipso
commorari,
nimium
locupletes,
immo
licet.
plura inveniunt
in ipso
quum
deperdere queant....Denique et neglecta omnia atque deperdita
quoque Dominica} passionis prcciosissimo thesauro rcperire ac recuperare
THE LABOURERS
but encouragement
IN
THE VINEYARD.
and with their might.
^43
It is
now
to
work
heartily,
great mistake to think that misgivings concerning the acceptance of

their
work
will
make men work
the
more strenuously
all
on the contrary,
is
nothing so effectually cuts the nerves of

in this part of the in those
exertion; but there
that
parable which
may
help to remove such misgivings
who would be most

;
likely to feel
them
it
encourages them
to
labour in hope
they too shall be sharers in the
full blessings
of Christ
and of
It
his salvation.
may
be securely inferred, that

;
all
between the
it
last
and the
first
hired received the penny as well
though
is
the case of the first hired
alone which
is
brought forward, as that in which the injustice, as the

it,
others conceived
appeared the most striking.
To
assume, as so
many
late
have done, Chrysostom, Maldonatus, Hammond, Waterland, and of

Olshausen, that these
first
hired had been doing their
work
negligently
by comparison, while the

Origen
in
this view,
last hired,
1
such
for instance as
a Paul,
whom
it
and quoting
Cor. xv. 10, suggests, had done
with their might, and had in fact accomplished as

the others in their day,
is to
much
in their
is
hour as
assume
that of
which there
this,
not the slightef-
est trace in the narrative.
And more
much,
than
such an assumption
lies
fectually blunts the point of the parable,

that
which
in this
very thing,
men may do and

last first.
suffer
infinitely
more than
others,
and yet
be
last
be rejected, while those others are received,
that the first
may
and the
like
It is
not indeed strange that a Rationalist interpreter

it ;
Kuinoel should thus explain

since if one
it is
for in fact the
whole matter
to
is
thus
taken out of the spiritual world, and brought down

region of sense
;
the
in
commonest
man
does as
much work
one hour as
another in twelve,
only natural that he should receive an equal re-
ward.
Every
difficulty disappears,
it
except indeed
to utter
if
this,
how
the
Lord
to
should have thought
worth his while

;
a parable for the justify-
ing so very ordinary a transaction

state that
or
he did, should have omitted
very thing which formed the justification.

to the
But
to
in truth this
view exactly brings us back

parable was expressly spoken
level,
from which
raise
us the
we have
is
a Jewish,* instead of an evan-
* Singularly enough, exactly such a one
quoted by Lightfoot and others from the
who died at a very early age, and is as 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 extraordinarily well. What did the king ? He took him aside and walked with him to and fro. When
Talmud
follows
;
it is
concerning a celebrated Rabbi,
"
even was come, those labourers came, that they might receive
their hire,
and he gave
'
him a complete
laboured hard
wages as we.'
And the labourers murmured, saying, We have all the day, and this man only two hours, yet he hath received as much The king saith to them, He hath laboured more in those two hours.
hire with the rest.
'
144
gelical, parable,
THE LABOURERS
IN
THE VINEYARD.
is
an affirmation that the reward

it is
of debt,
the very untruth which

those
first
not of grace but
meant
to
gainsay.
When
last
hired received the
more, " they murmured against the good
same sum as the others and no man of the house, saying, These
have wrought hut one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us,
which have borne
the burden and heat* of the day.^' These other, they would say, have been labouring not merely a far shorter time, but when they entered on their tasks it was already the cool of the evening, when
toil is
no longer oppressive, while we have borne the scorching heat of
the middle noon. these are of the
But here the perplexing dilemma meets
us.
Either
number of God's
faithful
people,
how then can they

?
murmur
against him, and grudge against their fellow-servants
are not of that number,
what then can we
or they
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 ?
for
it is
a very un-
than you in the whole day.'
So R. Bon
plied the
law more
in eight
and twenty years
than another in an hundred years."

pellus, p. 28, in
This parable appears
in the
an altered shape. Von Hammer (Fundgruben d. Orients, v. 1, p 157) has a curious extract from the Sura, or collection of Mahomet's traditional sayings,
Spicilegium of L. Ca-
which looks
like a distorted
image of our parable.
The Jew,
the Christian, the
Mathe
will
hommedan
are likened to three different bands of labourers, hired at different periods
of the day, at morning, at mid-day, and afternoon.
evening twice as
much
'
as the others.
It
ends thus
The latest hired received in " The Jews and Christians

and only one
to us.'
'
complain and say,
Lord, thou hast given two carets

'
to these
But
No.'
the Lord will say,

'
Have
is
wronged you
d.
in
your reward V
grace.'"
They answer,
Then
learn that the other
an overflowing of
my
See the same with imma-
terial differences in
v. 1, p.
Gerock's Christol.
Koran,
p.
141
and Mohler (Verm. Schrift.,
355,) mentions that
Scriptures, they
ers.
when seeking for prophetic intimations of their faith in our make distinct reference to this parable, and its successive bands of labour{Aiitt. Jud., 20. 9. 7,)
Mr. Greswell quotes a remarkable passage from Josephus,

that such a dealing as that of the householder,
in those very days.
which proves
was not without
a very re-
markable precedent
The Jewish
historian expressly says, that
Ananus, (the Annas of
the
New
Testament,) paid the workmen
who were employed
in the rebuilding or beautifying of the temple a whole day's pay, even though they
should have laboured hut a single hour.

*
The
Kaiauiv,
which word
'
:
is
used in the
LXX.
i.
for the dry
burning east wind, so

xiii. 15,)
fatal to all vegetable life
the
1.
wind from
:
the wilderness,"
e.
(Hos.
of which
Jerome says {Com.
in Os.,
3, c. 11)
Kauffufa,
ariditatem, sive
It
ventum uren-
tem, qui contrarius floribus
est, et
germinantia cuncta disperdit.
has
much
in
comwind
mon Sam
with, though
it
has not altogether so malignant a character
as, the desert
or Samiel, to which
it
modern
travellers attribute
life
yet
more
destructive
effects,
speaking of
as at times fatal to the
of
man
and wliose
effects
Venema {Comrn.
Subito corpora
p.
in Ps. xci. 6), thus describes: Penetrat ventus, venenatis particulis mixtus, testu Suo
venenato
in viscera, et prcBsentissimum ac dolorificum adfert exitium.
faede afficiuntur ac putrescunt.
See also Gebser, Der Brief des Jakobus,
41.
THE LABOURERS
natural
is
is
IN
THE VINEYARD.
^45
way
of escaping the difficulty, to understand " Take that which
thine" as meaning,
Take
the damnation
which belongs
to thee,
and
the just punishment of thy pride and
discontent.
Thcophylact and
others strive to mitigate as

ing,
much
as possible the guilt of their
murmurwhich
king-
and make
it
nothing more than the expression of surprise and adat
miration * which will escape some,

others, of perhaps small account
the unexpected
position
here, will
occupy
in the future
But the expression of their discontent is too strong, and the rebuke which it calls out too severe, to allow of any such explaining
of glory. f
dom
of their dissatisfaction.
Better to say that there
is
no analogy
to
be
found for this murmuring in the future world of glory

there
is
and only where
a great admixture of the old
man
in the present world of grace.

;
There
you
is
here rather a teaching by contraries

spirit as that
it is
saying, Since you
cannot conceive such a

feel to
here held up before you, and which
be so sinful and hateful, finding place in the perfected kingits
dom
of God, check betimes

at
beginnings
check
all
inclinations to look
grudgingly
your brethren who, having
in times past grievously de-
parted from God, have
now found
in the
a place besides yourselves in his king-
same spiritual privileges,:}: 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 yourdom, and are sharers
selves
;
check
all
inclinations to pride yourselves on
your own doings,
as though they gave
you a claim of
right
upon God, instead of accept-
ing
that
all
of the free
mercy and undeserved bounty of God, and confessing
must be saved entirely by grace. murmurers actually receiving their penny, it is ingeniously remarked by a Romish expositor, 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
you
as well as others
to the
With regard
* Bellarmine
t
Admirationem potius quam queiimoniam
significare videtur.
is
The
explanation given by Gregory the Great (Horn. 19, in Evang.)
of the
same
kind, though wiih particular reference to the Saints and Patriarchs of the Old Testa-
ment
Quia antiqui patres usque ad adventuni Domini

est
;
ducti ad
regnum non
et
sunt,
hoc ijjsum munnurasse
quod
et recte pro percipiendo
regno vixerunt,
spirit
tamen diu
xi.
ad percipiendum regnum
t
dilati sunt.
Origen in the same
quotes Heb.
39,40.
There are many and interesting points of comparison, as Jerome observes, bethis parable
this,
tween
and that of the Prodigal Son and the elder brother

in
and
chiefly
between the murmuring

the burden
labourers in
that.
They had borne

years
:
and
heat of the day
he had
full
served his father these
many
;
they grudged to see the

to see the Prodigal re-
labourers of the eleventh hour
made equal with themselves

and
he
ceived into the

strates with
blessings of his father's house

their narrow-heartedness,
the lord of the vineyard

in like
remon-
them
for
manner
the father with
him.
146
penny of
tlio
THE LABOURERS
moaner metal,
IN
THE VINEYARD.
and with that went his
his earthly reward,
way
but the Gentile the golden penny, the spiritual reward, grace and
glory, admission into the presence of God.
Ingenious as this notion

it
is,
of course no one will for an instant accept

difficulty,
is
as a fair explanation of the
and yet
it
may
suggest valuable considerations.
The penny
same,
"
very different
is
to the different receivers

;
though
ohjeclively the
suhjeciively
very different
it
is in
fact to
every one exactly what he

all,
I
will
make
it.*
What
this,
the Lord
said to
Abraham, he says unto

to
am
to
thy exceeding great reward," and he has no other reward
impart
him as he is, this is 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 desire, but to have 7nore than others, not to grow
himself.
any save only
namely
for all
To
see
reward which he has
his people, the
together with the whole body of Christ, but to get before and beyond
their brethren |
and
the
did not
seem enough
while
penny then, because it was common to all, in fact it was to each what he would
* Thus Aquinas, in answer to the question whether there will be degrees of glory
in the future world, replies that in one sense there will, in another there will not
:
for,
he adds, Contingit aliquem perfectius

situs vel ordinatus
sitio
frui
;
Deo quam alium ex eo quod

again
;
est melius dispo-
ad ejus fruitionem
and
Virtus erit quasi inaterialis dispois is
ad mensuram gratim
et gloriee suscipiendae.
This
one vision of
God
but there
are very<lifferent capacities
for
enjoying that vision, as
profoundly expressed in
Danto the
te's Paradiso, hy the circles concentric, but ever
growing smaller and thus nearer
centre of light and life. Augustine {Enarr. in Fs. Ixxii. 1) carries yet further the view of the one vision of God for all he compares it to the light which gladdens the
:
healthy eye but torments the diseased (non mutatis sed mutatum).
vourite notion with the mystics that
ish
It
was
also a fa-
God would
not put forth a two-fold power to pun-
and reward, but the same power acting
differently
on different natures,
as, to
use
their
own
illustration, the
same heat hardens

All,
;
the clay
and softens the wax.
The
to
Zend-Avesta supplies a
to
parallel:
it is
there said, in the world to come, will have
pass through the
same
streatn
it
but this stream will be as
warm
milk
the
righteous, while to the wicked
will be as
molten brass.
:
The
true feeling
is
expressed by Augustine
Htereditas in qua cohseredes Christi
sumus, non minuitur multitudine filiorum, nee
fit
angustius numerositate coha;redum.

;
Sed tanta
passage,
est multis
quanta paucis, tania singulis quanta omnibus

1.
and
in a
sublime
De
Lib. Arbit.,
2, c. 14,
where of Truth, the heavenly

sibi
bride, he exclaims
Omnes amatores
singulis casta est
:
suos nuUo
modo
invidos recipit, et omnibus

:
communis
est et
and by Gregory, who says
Qui
facibus invidiae carere desiderat,
illam caritatem appetat,
quam numerus
possidentium non angustat.

:
The same
is
beautifully expressed by Dante,
Purgat. 15, beginning
Com'
In
pill
esser puote ch'un ben distributo

posseditor, faccia
piii
ricchi
Di
se,
che se da pochi c posseduto?
THE LABOURERS
make
it.
IN
THE VINEYARD.
constitute the blessedness of
is
247
the
For
if the vision
of
God
future world, then they whose spiritual eye
most enlightened, will
drink in most of his glory
then, since only like can
know
like, all
ad-
vances which are here made

ishing of the mirror that
it
in humility, in holiness, in love, are a pol-
a purging of the eye that
enlarging of the vessel

fulness
;
may reflect more distinctly the divine image, may see more clearly the divine glory, an that it may receive more amply of the divine
it
and, on the contrary,

it
all pride, all self-righteousness, all sin
of
every kind, whether
stop short with impairing, or
end by altogether
is
destroying, the capacities for receiving from God,
in
its
degree a
staining of the mirror, a darkening of the eye, a narrowing of the vessel.*
In the present case,
where pride and envy and self-esteem had

did not appear
found place, darkening the eye of the heart, as a consequence the re-
ward seemed no reward, ing exactly what each was
it
enough
;")
instead of beto
willing, or rather
had prepared himself
make
it.
" But he answered one of them," probably him who was loudest and foremost in the expression of his discontent, " and said, Friend,^ I do thee
no wrong
didst thou not agree with
commonly a word
of address, as
superior to an inferior, and in
me for a jjeimy .?" " Friend " is would be among ourselves, from a Scripture is a word of an evil omen, seeit
it is
ing that besides the present passage,
the compellation used to the

to
guest that had not a wedding garment, (Matt, xxi.,) and
Judas when
he came
to
betray his Master.
" I do thee no wrong ;" he justifies his

as well as his sovereign right in his
manner of dealing with them,

things.
own
and
They had
put their claim on the footing of right, and on that

;
footing they are
answered
" Take that thine
is,
and go thy
long as
loay ;"
I
again, " Is thine eye * evil becaitse
I am good
? so
am
just to
* Bellarmine (De ceter. Felic. Sanct.,\. 5)
Denarius vitam aeternam significat:
sed
quemadmodum idem
magis
calefacit
sol clarius conspicitur
ab aquila
quam
ab
aliis
avibus, et
idem
ignis
proximos quam remotos, unus quam

alius.
:
sic in
eadem
aeterna vita clarius videbit,
et jucundius gaudebit
As
the heathen
:
moralist had said
Nulli ad aliena respicienti, sua placent
and again
t
Non
Our "
it
potest
quisquam
et invidere et gratias agere.

:
'EraTps: in the Vulgate,

fellow,"
Amice
but Augustine (Serm. 87,

too
c. 3,)
Sodalis,
which
it,
is better.
as
now
used, would contain
much
of contempt in
though
else
would give the original with the greatest accuracy.

ever spoken of as finding
its
Envy
is
expression from the eye, Deut. xv. 9

;
Sam.
xiv.
xviii. 9, ("
Saul eyed David

;
:")
Prov. xxiii. 6
lies in
xxviii.
22
Tob.
iv.
Sirac.
10
xxxi. 13
Mark
vii.
22.
There
the expression the belief, one of the
widest spread in the world, of the eye being able to put forth positive powers of mischief
Thus
;
in in
Greek
the d<p0a\ji6s PduKams
and
0aaKalvttv
:
(pOoveiv
in Italian, the
mal-occhio
French, the mauvais-ceil.
Persius
Urentes oculos.
See Becker's
148
you,
THE LABOURERS
may
I
IN
THE VINEYARD.
them."
not be
good* and
liberal to
The
that,
solution of the difit
ficulty that these complainers should get their
reward and carry

according
with them, has been already suggested,
namely
is
away
to
the
human
adapt
relations,
on which the parable
founded, and to which

to
it
must
itself, it
would not have been consistent with equity
have made
them
forfeit their
displayed.
own hire, notwithstanding the bad Yet we may say their reward vanished
feeling
which they
and
absothis
in their hands,
the sentences which follow sufficiently indicate, that with

lute forfeiture
God an
might follow, nay must necessarily follow, where

;
grudging, unloving, proud spirit has come to its full head for immediately after, " So the last shall be first, and the first last."
it is
said
Many
into
expositors have been sorely troubled how to bring these words agreement with the parable ; for in it first and last seem all put upon
footing, while here, in these words, a
;
the
is
same
complete change of place
asserted
those who seemed
highest,
;
it
is
declared shall be placed at

too
the lowest, and the lowest highest
compare
Luke
first,
xiii.
30,
where
there can be no doubt that a total rejection of the
the unbelieving
Jews, accompanied with the receiving of the

nant,
is
last,
the Gentiles, into covefinds an explana-
declared.
Origen,
whom
Maldonatus follows,
tion of the difficulty in the fact that the last hired are the first in order of
payment
first
but this
is
so trifling an advantage, that the explanation
must be
rejected as quite unsatisfactory.
The circumstance
first
of the last hired being
paid
is
evidently introduced merely for the convenience of the narfirst
ration; if the
hired had been
paid, and,
as
was natural, had
then gone their way, they would not have been present to see that the
others had obtained the
same remuneration as themselves, and so would have had no opportunity of expressing their discontent. Neanderf finds
the difficulty of reconciling the parable with the words
which introduce
and
finish
it
so great, that he proposes a desperate
remedy, and one under

all
the frequent application of which
we should
lose
confidence in the
trustworthiness, not to speak of the inspiration, of the Gospel narration.
He
ion
thinks the sentences and the parable to have been spoken on diirerent
occasions, and only by accident to have been here brought into connex;
and asserts that one must wholly pervert

it
this so
weighty parable
to
bring
through forced
it.
artifices
into
harmony with words which
are
alien to
But what has been observed above may furnish a

291.
sufficient
Charikles, v. 2,
p.
We
have on the oiher hand the uyaOoj

;
o/ieaX/.oj,
the un-
grudging eye.
*
(Sirac. xxxii. 10
LXX.)
dyadoi and
<5iVaios
The same
is
opposition between
finds place,
Rom.
v. 7,
which
indeed words.
only to be explained by keeping fast hold of the opposition between the
t Lehen Jesu, p. 196, note.
THE LABOURERS
answer;
but
is
IN
THE VINEYARD.
is
149
its
if that
be correct, the saying
not merely in
place here,
absolutely necessary to complete the moral, to express that which
the parable did not, and according to the order of
human
affairs,
could
not express, namely, the entire
forfeiture
indulgence of such a temper, as that

complainers.
which would follow on the displayed by the murmurers and

other words,
There
is
more
difficulty with the
"
Many
is
he
called,
hutfeio chosen."*
They
are not difficult in themselves, but difficult on

:
account of the position which they occupy

the application obvious,
the connexion
easy and
when they occur
as the moral of the Marriage
of the King's Son, Matt. xxii. 14, but here they have
interpreters,
much
perplexed
such
at least, as will
not admit the entire rejection from the
heavenly kingdom of those represented by the murmuring labourers.
Some
shown
explain them.
to
Many
are called, but few have the peculiar favour

is so much who makes the
them, that though their labour

:
less, their
reward
should be equal
thus Olshausen,
" called" and the
"chosen" alike partakers of

signified higher
final salvation,
but that by these terms are
in the kingdom of God. 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
and lower standings of
men
that the
cial
name "chosen"
or elect
becomes them
well, to
whom
such espe-
grace was given.
But
this supposition
of larger labour upon their

is
part mars, as has been already noted, the whole parable, and
by no
means
to
be admitted.
Others have supposed that the "called"

in the parable, in
may
the
refer to
some not expressly mentioned

to
who had
refused
altogether
work
in
at
the vineyard,
comparison with
whom
" choseji," those
were so few, that the Lord could not bear that any of these should be shut out from his full reward. But the easiest interpretation seems to be, Many are
invitation,
who
any hour had accepted the
called to
work
in
God's vineyard, but few retain that temper of

right on their
spirit,
that humility, that entire submission to the righteousness of God, that

utter denial of
any claim as of
to
own
:{:
part,
which
will allow
them
in the
end
be partakers of his reward.
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 of Alexandria has more
than once adduced on the score of its aptness as a parallel

IIoXXoi rot vap6riKOij>6potf navpoi i re 0aKj(oi.
t
Thus Wolf
also
(Curm, in
loc.)
KXrtTov; et txXeicToOj hie
non tanquam specie

atque digni-
sibi oppositos
tatis.
t
considerandos esse, sed tanquam oppositos gradu
felicitatis
The
term, reward, as applied to the

it
felicity
which God
will impart to his people,
sometimes offends, while
seems
to bring us
back
to a legal standing point,
and
to
150
THE TWO SONS.
PARABLE
X.
THETWOSONS.
Matthew
xxi.
28-32.
Our Lord had

his adversaries
put back with another question the question with which
had hoped either
to i]eiice liim, if
he should decline to
if
answer, or
to obtain
matter of accusation against him,

;
he should give
as-
the answer which they expected

sailing party,
and now he becomes himself the

in
and commences that series of parables,
which, as
in
glass held
their
up before them, they might see themselves, the impurity of hearts, their neglect of the charge laid upon them, their contempt
of the privileges afforded them, the aggravated guilt of 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

imply a claim as of right, not merely of grace, upon man's part
tural
but since
it is
a scrip-
term, (Matt. v. 12,
vi. 1
Luke
vi.
35
it,
2 John 8
Rev.
find
xxii. 12,) there is
no
reason
why we
its
should shrink from using

use.
even as
we
our Church has not
shrunk from
Thus
in one of our Collects
we pray
at the
" that
we
plenteously bring-
ing forth the
fruit
of good works
may
of thee be plenteously rewarded"
and
in the
Baptismal Service," everlastingly rewarded."
Yet
:
understand what
we mean by
it.
Aquinas says
justitiae
same time we should clearly Potest homo apud Deum aliquid

the
mereri non quidem secundfim absolutam

nationis
rationem, sed secundftm divinae ordi;
quandam praesuppositionem
to
and
this is a satisfactory distinction
reward
has relation
the work, but this

it,
is,
as the early protesters against the papal doctrine

jusiiiia retribu-
of merits expressed
tionis.
according to a justitia promissionis divinae, not a
There
is
nothing of a meritum condignum, though Bellarmine sought to press

(See Gerhard's Loc. TheolL,
loc. 18, c.
this parable into service, in support of such.
8, 14.)
When
it
it
is
said, "
God
;
is
not unrighteous to forget your

is
work and labour

niaTos).
of love,"
is
i.
only saying in other words, he

9
;
faithful
(ovk SJikos
Com-
pare
John
Cor. x. 13
1 Pet. iv.
c. is
19.
By
free
promise he makes himself a
debtor: Augustine {Serm. 110,
4):
Non debendo
sed promittendo debitorem se

to the
Deus
fecit.
In the reward there
a certain retrospect
work done, but no prohis promise.
portion between them, except such as
may have been

it
established by the free appoint-
ment
of
all
of the Giver, and the only claim which
justifies is
upon
"
faithful that
and not any other thing must remain always the ground expectations and hopes and what these expectations are to be, and what they
this
:
promised"
He
is
are not to be,
it is
the
main purpose of
this parable
to declare.
in
Bernard declares exwill accept the
cellently the spirit in
which man ought
to
work, and
which God
work
when he
says: Vera caritas mercenaria non est, quamvis merces earn sequatur.
THE TWO
SONS.
151
not words of defiance, but of earnest, tenderest love,
spoken,
if
it
were
yet possible to turn them from their purpose, to save them from the fearful sin
they were about
to
commit,
to
win
thc7n also for the
kingdom of
God.
The
first,
that of the
Two
is
Sons, goes not so deeply into the matrather retrospective, while those other
ter as the
two that follow, and
are prophetic also.
" But what think ye?
certain
man had
tioo
sons."
Here, as
at
Luke
XV. II, are described, under the image of two sons of one father,
divisions of
all
two great moral

rano-ed
men, under one or other of which might be

our blessed Lord
in
almost
with
whom
his teaching
and
preaching came
in contact.
Of one
of these classes the Pharisees were

this class as well as the other
all
it
specimens and representatives,

will exist at
all
though
evil.
times.
In this
are included
who have sought
righteousness through the law, and by help of
have been kept
in the
main from open outbreakings of

have thrown
God, done
first is
In the second class, of which the

all
publicans and harlots stand as representatives, are contained

off"
who
the yoke, openly and boldly transgressed the laws of
evil
with both hands earnestly.

;
Now
the condition of those
of course far preferable
that
righteousness of the law better
than
this
open unrighteousness;
provided
always that
it
is
ready
to
giye place to the righteousness of faith

that
it
when
;
that appears,
provided
knows and feels its own incompleteness and this will always be the case, where the attempt to keep the law has been truly and honestly made 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 strict;
ness of the requirements of the law
if,
cold and loveless and proud,

to
it
imagines that
it
wants nothing, and so refuses

faith,
submit
itself to the
righteousness of
his eyes
then far better that the sinner should have had
opened
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
ing to him
still
;
state,
of that which
is
lack-
^just
as
it
would be
better that disease, ^/'m the frame,
should take a decided shape, so that

to
it
might be
felt
and acknowledged
it
be disease, and then met and overcome,
than
life
that
should be se-
cretly lurking in, and pervading, the whole system, and because secretly,
its
very existence denied by him whose

this point
is
it
was threatening.
fault as count-
From
lesson
of view St. Paul speaks,

all
Rom.
is
vii.
7-9, and the same
taught us in
fault.
Scripture
It
that there
no such
ing
we have no
;
is
taught us in the bearing of the elder son
towards his father and returning brother in the parable of the Prodigal
Son
and again, in the conduct of the Pharisee who had invited Jesus
152
to his house, in
THE TWO SONS.

his
demeanour
to
him and
into the
to the
woman
to
" which was a
sinner j" and in his

10.
who went up
and
temple
pray.
(Luke
in
xviii.
Compare
"
v.
29-32.)
to the first
And
he came
said, Son,
go icork to-day
my
vine-
yard."
This command was the general summons made both by the

law which
pubfor
natural law in the conscience, and also by the revealed
Moses gave,
spised.
men
to
bring forth fruit unto God.
This
call the
licans and harlots, and all open sinners, manifestly neglected and de-
The
son
first
bidden
to
go
to the
work, " answered and said, I

at-
will not.''*
The rudeness
of the answer, the total absence of any

are both characteristic
I
;
tempt
to excuse' his disobedience,
he does not
take the trouble
to say, like those invited guests, "

;
pray thee, have
me
excused ;" but flatly refuses to go

careless, reckless sinners.
he
is
in short the representative of

to the
And
I
he came
second and said likewise,
and he answered and

they would
fulfil
said,
go, 47>."f
The
their
Scribes and Pharisees, as
professing to be zealous for the law, set themselves in the

the
way
as though
commands
this
profession
was
like the se-
cond son's promised obedience.
But, as the Lord on a later occasion
lays to their charge, that they said and did not, (Matt, xxiii. 2,) even as
he quotes the prophet Isaiah as having long before described them truly,
(Matt. XV. 8,) " This people draweth nigh unto
me
is
with their mouth,
and honoureth
me
with their
the
was
"in
it
here.
When
take decisively one side

the
far from me," so marked time arrived, when it was needful to or the other, when the Baptist came unto them
lips,
but their heart
way of
righteousness,^''
and summoned
of the
to earnest repentance, to
a revival of God's
work
in the hearts
entii'e people,
then
many
of
those hitherto openly profane were baptized, confessing their sins; and
like the son
who
at first
contumaciously refused obedience
to his father's
bidding,
'^repented
and went:" while on the other hand, the
real un-
riuhteousness of the Pharisees, before concealed under show of zeal for

the law,
was evidently declared

the
professing willingness to go, they yet
" went not."
When
Lord demands of
his adversaries, "
Whether of the
to
tivain
did the will of his father ?" they cannot profess inability
question, as they had done that other; (ver. 27
;)
solve this
they arc obliged
now
* Gerhard
Vita peccatorum nihil ahud est,
quam reaHs quidam clamor et professio,
Nolumus
facere Dei voluntatein.
The readings here are very various, vai Kvpie, vTzayo Kvpu, and t 'y(o, Kvptc. many more, which however may be easily traced up to transcribers wanting to amend
a phrase which they did not quite understand, and which seemed incomplete
ftat,
:
Tropeio-
direpx"!"", OT
some such word must be
supplied.
See
Sam.
iii.
4,
6; Gen. xxii.
1,
LXX.
THE TWO SONS.

to
153
unto
" They say give a reply, though that reply condemned themselves. Mm, The first ;" not, of course, that he did it absolutely well, but
by comparison with the other.
Whereupon
the
Lord immediately makes
the application of the words which have been reluctantly
wrung from
into the
them, " Verily, I say unto you, that
the publicans
and harlots go
kingdom of God before you.^^ When he says, they " go before you," or take the lead of you, he would indicate that the door of hope was not yet
shut upon them, that they were not yet irreversibly excluded from that kingdom * the others indeed had preceded them, but they might still follow, if they would Some interpreters lay an emphasis on the words,
" in the loay of righteousness,''^ as though they are brought in to aggravate the sin of the Pharisees as though Christ would say, " The
Baptist came, a pattern of that very righteousness of the law, in which
you
profess to exercise yourselves.

life
He
did
not come,
calling to the
new
of the Gospel, of which

;
am
the pattern, and which
you might
have misunderstood
he did not come, seeking to put new wine into
the old bottles; but he came, himself fulfilling that very idea of right-
eousness which you pretended

consisted in strong and
;
to have set before yourselves, that which marked separation of himself from sinners, and earnest asceticism and yet you were so little hearty in the matter, that for all this he found no acceptance among you, no more acceptance than I have found. You found fault with him for the strictness of his manlife,
ner of
as
you
find fault
with
me
for the at
first,
condescension of mine,
but afterward
and not merely did you reject him
when
his
preaching bore manifest fruit in the conversion

'
of sinners, t\'hen
God
had thus set his seal to it, when the publicans and harlots believed him' even then you 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
* But he does not affirm more, so that there need be no difficulty here on account
of the Pharisees, or the greater part of them, never having followed
yovaiv) does not
;
the
word
(Trpuu-
imply that they will follow,

it
it
merely declares that the others have ennot.

to
tered
first,
leaving
open
to
them
to follow or
vpuTOTOKos, (Matt, i.25,)
where there were none
Compare come after.
the
still
stronger use of
Ov
iicTCjieMdriTC
the
as ixeravudv, and as a less expressive

ture.
word does not word
in itself describe so
is
comprehensive a change
comparatively very seldom used in Scrip-
MeraixiXeia does not of necessity signify
more ihan
the after anxiety for a deed
done, which
may
be
felt
without any true repentance towards God,

after
may
is
.3.)
be merely re-
morse, such as Judas
felt
having betrayed his Master, and

used of him.
it
worthy of
re-
mark
tions
that this very
word
/ira/:<X;ei<r is
(Matt, xxvii.
In the preaffec-
sent case, however, (that
is,
at ver. 29,) the true îc-avotais
meant, the change of
and will and conduct.
For a good tracing of the
distinction
between the two
words, see Spanheim's Duhia Evang., Dub. 9,
v. 3, p. 16, seq.
11
]^54
THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN.

to,
spoken
who promises
first,
to
go,
and afterwards disobeys, and the second
who, refusing
afterwards 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 successive
callings of
Jews and
Gentiles,* and that therefore the order of their calling should
But the parable does not primarily apply to the Jew and must be referred rather to the two bodies within the bosom kingdom of it is not said, the Gentiles enter the of the Jewish people
be preserved.
Gentile, but
:
heaven before you,

if the
it,)
but, the publicans

if
it
and harlots
while yet the other,
parable had admitted, (and
had admitted,
it
would have required

to
would have been a

X. 21, 22.)
far stronger
way
of provoking them
jealousy.
(Rom
in the
The
other application of the parable need not indeed

to the
be excluded, since the whole Jewish nation stood
Gentile world,
same
relation
which the more self-righteous among themselves did
to notorious transgressors.
But
it is
not
till
the next parable that
Jew
and Gentile,
lations to the
in their relations to
one another, and

distinctly
in their respective re-
kingdom of God, come
and primarily forward.
PARABLE
XI.

Matt.
xxi.
33-44
Mark
xii.
1-12
Luke
xx. 9-18.
Lord's hearers would have been well content that he here should have paused. But no ; he will not let them go " Hear another parable,'' as if he would say, " I have not done with you yet ; I have still
The
This
is
the
view maintained by Origen, Chrysoslom, and Athanasius, as
also
by
Jerome,
who
quotes as a parallel to" I go, sir," the words of the Jews at the giving of
the law, " All that the Lord hath said will
we
is
do, and be obedient."
(Exod. xxiv.
7.)
The Auct.
Oper. Iinperf. interprets
it
as
it
done above, noting at length the incon-
veniences that attend the application of

sents to his interpretation, affirms he
is
to
Jew and
Gentile.
Maldonatus, who asit,
the only ancient author that gives
and
is
periontX,
plexed
how
the other should have obtained such general reception
but the
i)? ijiol
with which Origen introduces his explanation, marks, that there was another opinion
current in the Church in his time
;
even as
is
explicitly stated
by Jerome
Alii
non
putant Gentilium et JudsBorum esse parabolam,sed simpliciter peccatorum et justorum.

another word of warning and rebuke," and
to
155
that he
now summons
tlie
them
to listen.
There
is this
apparent difference between

St.
accounts
St.
of the several Evangelists, that while
Matthew and
it
Mark
to
relate the parable as addressed to the Pharisees,

St.
was, according
Luke, spoken
to the people.
But the sacred narrative
itself supplies
St,
the
helps for clearing
away
this slight
apparent difference,
Luke
mentioning the chief priests and scribes (ver. 19) in a way which shows that they were listeners also ; and thus, being spoken in the hearing of
both parties, in the mind of one narrator the parable seemed addressed
mainly 1-7
to the
people
in that
at
of the others,
to the Pharisees.
The opening words

;
once suggest a comparison with Isaiah v.
no doubt our Lord here takes up the prophecy there, the more
the law
willingly building on the old foundations, that his adversaries accused
him of destroying
gone before
and not
in
word only, but by
the whole
structure of the parable, connecting his

in the past
Jewish history,
own appearing with all that had so that men should look at it
as part, indeed as the crowning and final act, of that great dealing of
of the kingdom of
to this parable,
mercy and judgment which had ever been going forward. The image God a savine-stock * or as a vineyard f is not peculiar
but
runs through the whole Old Testament
(Deut.
ii.
xxxii.
32;
Ps.
Ixxx.
xix.
8-16;
Isai.
v.
1-7;
xxvii.
1-7;
Jer.
21;
Ezek. XV. 1-6;
10;) and has
this
especial
fitness, that
viii.
no pro11, 12,)
perty was considered to yield so large a return, (Cant.
none was therefore of such price and esteem, even as none required such unceasing care and attention.:}: Our Lord compares himself to
the vine as the noblest of earthly plants, (John xv. 1,) and in prophecy
had been compared
to
it
long before.
(Gen. xlix. 11.)
*
tine
;
The
vine-stock often appears on the Maccabaean coins as the

vine-leaf.
sometimes too the bunch of grapes, and the

236)
:
V. 3, p.
Botrus prseterea, folium
vitis
et
palma, ut
emblem of PalesThus Deyling (Obss. Sac, ex nummis apparet, symboat
lum erant
Judseae.
t Bernard
draws out the comparison between the Church and the vineyard
Ser7ii.,
some length (In Cant.

sane exuberans vino,
libidii^.
laetitia.
30)
In fide plantata, in caritate mittit radices, defossa
sarculo disciplinae, stercorata pcenitentium lacrymis, rigata prsedicantium verbis, et sic

in
quo
est laetitia, sed

laetificat
non luxuria, vino
totius suavitatis, nuilius
Hoc
certe
vinum
cor hominis, hoc constat et angelos bibere

c. 1)
;
cum
Augustine also (Serm. 87,
Cultura ipsius est in nos, quod non cessat
verbo suo extirpare semina mala de cordibus nostris, aperire cor nostrum tanquam
aratro sermonis, plantare semina praeceptorum, exspectare fructum Ppietatis.
Cf.
Amto
brose, Exp. in
t
Luc,
1.
9, c. 29.
It
no doubt belongs
to the fitness of the
image that a vineyard
does,
if it is is
bring forth richly, require the most diligent and never-ceasing care, that there
no
season in the year in which
much
has not to be done in
it.
Virgil presses this very
156
It would not be convenient to interpret the vineyard here as the Jewish church, since the vineyard is said to be taken away from the
Jews and given

vineyard
is
to
another nation
and
it is
evident that this could not

In
Isaiah,
be accurately said of the
Jewish church.
indeed,
it
the
de-
that Jewish church, and
consistently with
this,
is
scribed, not as transferred to others, but as laid
waste and utterly deall
stroyed,
its
hedge taken away,
its
wall broken down,

it,
labour of prun-
ing or digging withdrawn from
and the heavens themselves com-
manded
stand by
that they rain no rain on
it
any more.
Here, where
it
is
trans-
ferred to other
it
the
and more faithful husbandmen, we must rather underkingdom of God in its idea, which idea Jew and Gentile
in
have been successively placed

indeed as Israel according
yard,
it
conditions to realize.*
Inasmuch
to the flesh
was
the
first
occupier of the vine-
church
at that time was the Jewish was only accidental and temporary, and not of necessity, as the sequel abundantly proved. They were not idento them indeed it was first given to tified with the kingdom of God realize that kingdom, as to these husbandmen the vineyard was first
might be said that the vineyard

but this arrangement
committed, but failure in each case involved forfeiture of
all
privileges
and advantages, with the transfer of them to others. The householder was more than the possessor of this vineyard, he had himseW planted " it. (Exod. xv. 17.) The planting of this spiritual
vineyard found place under Moses and Joshua,

It is
in the establishing
of the Jewish polity in the land of Canaan.
described Deut. xxxii.
12-14.
See Ezek.
done
xvi.
9-14;
Neh.
ix.
23-25.
But the further

it
details of things
for the vineyard,
the hedging of
round about,f
sliongly, in
words not unworthy

;
to be
kept in mind by
all
to
whom
a spiritual vine-
yard has been committed
see Georg., 2, 397-419,
beginning
Est etiam
ille
labor curandis vitibus alter,

satis est
:
Cui nunquam exhausli
namque omne quotannis

versis
Terque quaterque solum scindendum, glebaque
jEternum frangenda bidentibus

Fronde nemus.
Atque
omne levandum
annus.
requirit.
Redit agricolis labor actus in orbem,
in se sua per vestigia volvitur
And
*
so Cato
Nulla possessio pretiosior, nulla majorem operam
Origen {Comm. in 'Matth., in loc.) draws out clearly and well the difterencea
that exist in this regard

gelists.
between
the parable in Isaiah
and that recorded by the Evan-
t
u6i) is
Mr. Greswell's observation, {Exp. of the Par., v. 5, p. 4,) that this fence (ippayrather a stone wall than a hedge of thorns, or of any other living materials, I
should suppose most probably to be quite correct, (see

31
;
Numb.
xxii.
24
Prov. xxiv.
Isai. v. 5,)
though
in that last
passage the vineyard appears to have been provid-

the digging the wine-press, the building the tower,
I57
are
to
these,
?
it
may-
be asked,
they
to be
to
have any particular signification attached
them
or are
taken merely as general expressions of that ample provision
of grace and goodness which

will allow nothing in
God made
for his
people?
Storr, as usual,
them
provident care for his

the prophet, "
beyond a general expression of God's Church, such as found utterance in his words by
at all
What
in it?
have not done
could have been done more to my vineyard, that I " (Isai. v. 4.) But even those who like him most
shrink from the interpretation of a parable except in the gross, could

here, one might have supposed, scarcely have resisted the explanation
of the hedging round the vineyard, which
is
suggested by passages like
Ephes.
ii.
14,
where the law
is
described as " the middle wall of parti-
tion"* between the

the law, the
Jew and
Gentile.
By
their circumscription through
Jews became a people dwelling
alone, and
not reckoned
at
among
ration
the nations.
(Num.
xxiii. 9.)
That law was a hedge
once
of separation and of
defence,"|" since in
keeping distinct the line of sepa-
their security that they should
between themselves and the idolatrous nations around them, lay enjoy the continued protection of God.
is
That
that
protection
;
called a wall of
;
fire,
(Zech.
is
it
ii.
5,)
and compare Ps.
cxxv. 2
Isai.
xxvi. 1
xxvii. 3.
Nor
its
outwardly also Judea, through

the
east
unworthy of observation, geographical position, was hedged

side
de-
circumscribed and by bounty of nature on every on by the Jordan and two fended guarded on the and mountainous country of Idumsea, on the south by the observes and by Anti-Libanus on the north west by
round
river
the
lakes,
desert,
the
the sea,
for
so,
Vitringa, had
God
in his counsels determined,
who
willed that Israel
should dwell alone.
ed with both.
Yet one of
his grounds for this
seems questionable, namely,

ii.
that the
incursions of the enemies which threatened
the vineyard, the foxes (Cant.
15)
and
the wild boar (Ps. Ixxx. 13), were not to be effectually repelled except by fences
made
of stone
see
Neh.
iv.
3: and Virgil (Georg., 2, 371), while he
is
on the very subject

et
of the extreme injury which the various animals,

so eignata in stirpe cicatrix,)
may
(durique venenum Dentis

if
admor-
inflict
upon the
vines, enjoins not the building of
stone walls, but a careful keeping of the hedges as the adequate measure of defence,
Texendae sepes etiam.
The
thorn fences, especially
formed, as
is
common
in the
East, of the wild aloe, would be far

also
more
effectual for this than
any wall of stone.
See
Homer, II. 18, 564. The word fpayftui itself determines nothing, as mental meaning of 0f;ufr<7oj seems to be to surround or enclose (Passow
the funda:
umgeben,
einschliessen), without itself determining in the least
how
it
the enclosure shall be effected.
Mcfforoiiôi/ roO 0piiy/<oi) there, as (ppayfioi here.
t Ambrose {Exp. in
valalvit,
Luc,
1.
9, c. 24,) explains
Divinae custodiae munitione

;
ne facile spiritalium pateret incursibus bestiarum
and Hexaem.,
1.
3, c. 12
Circumdedit earn velut vallo quodam caelestium praeceptorum, et angelorum custodia.
158

wine-press * and the tower f would both be needful for the comthe latter not being merely the ornamental ;
The
pleteness of a vineyard
building, the kiosk
which belongs
for delight, but
to the perfection of
an Eastern garden,
use as ornaprotect the
and serves mainly

ment,
here serving as
a place of shelter for the
much for watchmen, who should

for the fruits
fruits of the vineyard,
and perhaps a receptacle
themselves.
It is difficult satisfactorily to
point out distinct spiritual benefits
ed forth by these, or
to affirm that
more
is
shadowmeant than generally that
* Arprof
torcular, in
Mark
vvoXriviov
lacus, in
each case a part
for the
whole
the digging can be applied strictly only to the latter,
which was often hollie
lowed out of the earth and then lined with masonry, as Chardin mentions that
found them in Persia
(Dionys., 12. 330)
;
sometimes they were hewn out of the
solid rock.
Nonnus
describes, in
some
spirited lines,
how Bacchus
ix.
hollowed out such
a receptacle from thence.
In the
Xiji/oj,
or press above, the grapes
were placed, and

xiii.
were there crushed commonly by the

xiii. 3,)
feet
of men, (Judg.
27
Neh.
;
15
Isai.
hence Bacchus has the epithet, Aijvaroj, the wine-press treader
at the
bottom
of this press
ran into the
its
was a
closely grated hole, through

(or vpoXrivtov, Isai. v. 3,
which the
juice, being expressed,
i-iroXfiviov,
LXX.,)
the vat prepared beneath for
reception, the lacus vinarius of Columella.
It
may
in
be this Kvpyo;
resided
;
was
the villa
where
at
once the
fruits
were kept and the
husbandmen
have seen
approaching
but
should rather suppo?e
it
the tower of the
watchmen.
Spain temporary towers erected for them, at the season when the grapes,
to ripeness,
might tempt the passers by, which were there the more nethe road without
cessary, as often the vineyard lay open to

ever.
any protection what-
scaffolding
to
was
raised to a considerable height

;
with planks and poles, and
matting above
defend from the heat of the sun

all
and on the scaffolding, which comCalthis parable,
manded an
extensive view
round, a watcher, with a long gun, was planted.
deron has an Auto, La
viiia del Seiior,

:
founded on
and explains the pur-
pose of the tower exactly so
porque de
la
campana
Assaltando sus
portillos
Se descubran a
Sus ambitos,
lo lejos
Robar, sin ser descubiertos
sin
que puedan
Sus
frutos,
para Atalaya
Tampoco
This tower
Specula
p.
is
los
passageros
i.
La
puse essa torre enmedio.
the diT(jpo(pv\iiKiov of Isai.
8, xxiv. 20,
which Jerome explains:

v.
quam
:
custodes satorum habere consueverunt.

" In the mountainous district of
Niebuhr (Beschreib.
I
Arab.,
it
138) says
Yemen,
saw here and

to
there as
were nests
fields.
in the trees, in
which the Arabs perched themselves

the trees
watch
this
their corn-
In
Tehama, where
were scarcer, they
built
v.
for
purpose an
high and light scaffold." Burder)

observes:
Ward
(Vieio
of the Hindoos,
buffaloes
2, p.
uri,
327, quoted by
Georg., 2, 374]
"The
wild hogs and
[silvestres
;
make
are
told
sad havoc in the fields and orchards of the Hindoos

stages in
the fields;"
;
to
keep them out,
men
placed on elevated covered
sometimes,
effect, to
as a friend has
me, on mounds
slings,
built
with sods of earth
and the watchers are frequently armdrive
ed with
which they use with great dexterity and
away invad-
ers of every description.

to the
The Greek
proverb, yXu^r' Strwpa, ûXa/<oj ticXtXairdruj, alludes
custom of setting such watchers over a vintage.

God provided
his people with all things necessary for life
X59
and godliness,
his blessings.
and furnished them with fixed channels and reservoirs of
All the explanations which are given of this tower and this wine-press*
appear fanciful, and though often ingenious, yet no one of them such as
to
command
an absolute assent.
Having thus richly supplied his vineyard with all things needful, he " let it out to husbandmen.'^ These last must be different from the vineyard which they were to cultivate, and must, therefore, be the spiritual
leaders and teachers of the people, while the vineyard itself will then
naturally signify the great body of the people,
who were
to
be instruct-
ed and taught, to the end that, under diligent cultivation, they might
bring forth fruits of righteousness.!
to those,
By
the
letting out of the
vineyard
we must understand
to the
the solemn committal
which the law made,

is
of this charge
priests
and Levites
their
solemn commission
ii.
recognized and pressed in such passages as Mai.

It is
Ezek. xxxiv.
2.
worthy of observation, that the parable

be looked at not merely
is
so constructed as to imply
that the disobedience, the

for
contumacy, the unprofitableness of the Jews,

in the light
were
to
of common wickedness, but
as a breach of the most solemn trust,

for
as ingratitude of the darkest
dye
no doubt
*
it
was a great
benefit to the
husbandmen
to
be put in posses-
Generally the wine-press
is
:
taken to signify the prophetic institution.
Thus
ubertas
Irenaeus {Con.
praeparavit.
Har.,
I.
4, c. 36)
:
Torcular
fodit,
receptaculum prophetic! Splritus
Hilary
(m Matih.)
In quos [prophetas] musti
modo quaedam
1.
Spiriius Sancti ferventis influeret.
So Ambrose, Exp.
in
Luc,
9, c. 24.
t In the parallel passage in Isaiah two

that the vineyard
other principal benefits are recorded,
was on a
fruitful hill (aperlos
Bacchus amat coUes, Virgil,) sloping

it,
toward the rays of the sun, and that the stones were gathered out from
iii.
(2 Kin.
19,) the last
with allusion
to the for
casting out of the Canaanites, that else might

(Ps.
have proved stumbling-blocks
God's people.
cxxv. 3.)
With
the whole par-
able Ezek. xvi. will form an instructive parallel.
There
too, in the
same manner,
although under altogether a different image, the Lord upbraids the ingratitude of his
people with the enumeration of the rich provision which
he had made for them.

ver.
With
this description of the
ample furniture of the vineyard might be compared
10-12 of
that chapter, for they too in like
manner
are employed in describing
what
God
X
did for his people at their
coming out of Egypt.
friend
who
kindly looked over the notes on some of these parables before pub[
lication has
added a note, which
am
sure every reader will be glad I have preservthis
ed
he says: "I do not absolutely question the truth of

to
interpretation, but
it
seems
me
rather an escape from a difficulty which does not exist more in the par-
able than
in all our
customary language about the Church.
The Church
:
is
both
teacher and taught; but the teachers are not merely the ministers
the whole
Church
of one generation teaches the whole Church of another, by

mistakes, &c.
its
history, acts, words,
The Church
existing out
of time an unchangeable body, teaches the
members of the Church

to be diligently
existing in every particular time.
The whole
subject requires
examined and elucidated."
160

ix.
sionof a vineyard so largely and liberally furnished, (compare Neh.
25
Deut. xvi. 11,) and every thing implies that they had entered into covenant with the proprietor, concerning what proportion of the fruits
;
they were
to
pay
to
him
in
their
season
at
even
as the Jewish people
made
a solemn covenant with
God
Horeb, that as he would be their
God, so they would be his people. The householder then, having thus intrusted the husbandmen with
and cultivation of the vineyard on some certain terms, afar country" and, as St. Luke adds, '^for a long ivhile." At Sinai, when the theocratic constitution was founded, and in the miracles which accompanied the deliverance from Egypt and the bringing
the keeping
"went
into
into
Canaan, the Lord

and
may
be said
to
have openly manifested himself to

for a while, not speak-
Israel,
this done, to
have withdrawn himself

to face,
ing to the people again face

in patience to see
(Deut. xxxiv. 10-12,) but waiting

effect,
what the law would
what
manner of works
the people, under the teaching of their spiritual

forth.*
guides, would bring
"
And when
the time
of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants

the fruits
to the
How, it may be servants to be distinguished from the husbandmen ? asked, are these Exactly in this, that the servants, that is, the prophets, and other more eminent ministers of God in his theocracy, 7oere sent, being raised up at
husbandmen
that they might receive
of
it."
particular times, having particular missions,
their
power lying
in their
mission, while the others were the
more regular and permanently established ecclesiastical authorities, whose power lay in the very constitution The servants were sent to receive the fruits of the theocracy itself.f
or,
of the vineyard,
as St.
Mark and
St.
Luke have
it,
to receive
"of
the fruit of the vineyard,"X the householder's share of the
produce,
* Kmhrose {Exp. in
videretur exactio
:
iwc, 1. 9, c. 23) nam quo indulgentior

:
Multis temporibus abfuit, ne praepropera

liberalitas,
e6
:
inexcusabilior
pervicacia.
Theophylact
h dTroSnina
tov Ocov, n jiuKpudvîa.

arbitrio.
Bengel
Innuitur tempus divinae taci-
turnilatis, ubi
homines agunt pro
See Ezek.
viii.
12
Ps. x. 5.
t Bengel: Servi sunt ministri extraordinarii, majores: agricolaB, ordinarii.

X
'Afd TOV Kapvov
according
still
to the
well-known metayer system once prevalent over

France and
I.
great part of Europe, and
known
in parts of
in Italy
the
two
parties
would
tates
in
Latin be styled
partiarii.
Pliny {Ep.,
9.
37) mentions of some of his es-
could get any thing from them,

tio
si
which had hitherto been very badly managed, that the only way in which he was by letting them on this system Medendi una ra:
non
nummo
sed partibus locem
he
was
to appoint
some guardians (exactores

it
and custodes)
to secure his portion of the
produce
differing
is
probable only from
these servants, that they were to be permanently on the spot, to prevent fraud, and to
see that he obtained his just share.
ed.) gives
Chardin {Voy. en Perse,
v. 5, p.
384, Langles
much
information on the terms upon which these arrangements are
commonly

whatever that might have been
151
the rent not being to be paid in
but in a fixed proportion of the

fruits
fruits.
money, Olshausen says here, " These

to
which are demanded, are
in
no wise
be explained as particular
works, nor yet as a condition of honesty

eousness, which the law
and uprightness, but
much
rather as the repentance and the inward longing after true inward right-
was unable
to
bring about.
in
It is
by no means
its
meant
ness
:
to
it
be said that the law had not an influence
producing uprighthidden
cuts off the grosser manifestations of sin, and reveals

;
abomination
so that a righteousness according to the law, can even unfruit,
der the law come forth as
but this to be sufficing, must have a sense

its
of the need of a redemption for

therefore here appear as those
basis.
(Rom.
iii.
20.)
The
servants
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."
The conduct
is
of the wicked husbandmen toward their lord's servants

in the
brought out with more particularity

first.
two
later Gospels than in
the
In St.
Luke, the gradual growth of the outrage under the sense
of impunity
**
heat
is distinctly traced. When the first servant came, they him and sent him away empty ;" the next they not only beat, but
" entreated him 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." The expi*ession
made
in Persia,
and proceeds showing how something

is
like the dishonest
and violent
breaking of the agreement which

currence
:
supposed in the parable might be of frequent ocfoi et
Get accord, qui paroit un marche de bonne
qui
le
devroit etre, se trouve
neanmoins une source

tice n'est presque
intarissable de fraude, de contestation, et de violence, oii la jusqu'il
jamais gardee, et ce
y a de
fort singulier c'est
que
le
seigneur
est celui qui a toujours
du
pire, et qui est lese.

it is
He
then enters into details of some of

is
these frauds
and violences, of which,
true,
none reach the pitch which
here sup-
posed.
See
Du Cange,
has here
it is
s.
vv. Medietarius
and Medietas.
* St.
Mark
(xii.
4) a singular use of the
word
Ke<pc\at6ui,
as to
wound
in
the head, while yet
never elsewhere used but as to gather up in one sum, as under
one head
of
It is
which
its
more
correct use,
we have a good example

upon
in the Epistle of
Barnabas,
quoted.
Tiwv
rate
c. v.,
which as bearing
in another aspect
this present parable,
may
be
there said that the
Son of God came

n-fio<pfiTai
in the flesh, iVa to riXciov tmv hfiap-
KC<pa\aidJari toT;
iiwâaiv iv davdro) Tovi

s. v.,
avrov.
Passow seems hardly accu-
when he
says,
with allusion, as
it is
is
evident, to this passage, KcêXaioa in N. T.
=zKC(pa\iôj, todten.
For
clear
it
does not
mean
to decapitate or
wound mortally
on the head, since they sent him away on

parallels in yao-rpi'^&j, to strike
whom
they inflicted this injury.
We
have
on the stomach,
yvaduu),
on the cheek.
The
notion of
some
that here also
it is,
breviter vel
it,
summatim
egerunt, they
made
short
or as Lightfoot expresses
alluding to the circumstance that the servant
work of it, came to de(ironically,)
mand payment,
is
they reckoned with him, they squared accounts with him,
quite untenable.
162
of the original * would seem to indicate, that in the wantonness of their
husbandmen further devised some insulting outnamed in the parable, against this servant, whereby they might the more plainly testify their scorn of the master some outrage, perhaps, like Hanun's, when he " took David's servants, and
cruelty and pride these
rages, not expressly
shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut

middle, and sent them away." (2
off their
garments
in the
Sam.
x. 4.)
The
third they
forth,
it
wounded,
might
be,
and cast out of the vineyard with violence, In the two with hardly any life in him.
reaches even
St.
to the killing of
it
flung
him
first
evangelists the outrage
some of the subordinate messengers

this last
it
in
Luke's narration
is
is
perhaps preferable, that
and worst
might
outrage
reserved for the son himself, though on the other hand
be said that some of the prophets were not merely maltreated, but actually put to death.
Thus,
if
we may
trust
Jewish
tradition,
Jeremiah
was stoned by
nasseh
;
the exiles in Egypt, Isaiah
sawn asunder by king Ma2 Kin.

vii.
and
for
;
an ample historical
1
justification of this description, see
Jer. xxxvii.
38
Kin. xviii. 13
xxii.
;
24-27
vi.
31
;
xxi. 16
2 Chron. xxiv. 19-22; xxxvi. 16

15
;
and also Acts
52
Thess.
ii
and the whole passage

xi. 36,)
finds a parallel in the
words of the apostle
(Heb.
ings,
"
And
others had trial of cruel
mockings and scourg
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."
;
The
tions
is
patience of the householder under these extraordinary provoca-
wonderful,
that he sends
messenger
after
messenger
to a
for the pur-
pose of bringing back,
if possible,
these wicked
men
sense of duty,
inflict
and does not
at
once resume possession of his vineyard, and

as the end proves that he had
is
sum:
mary vengeance,
and
this his
power
to do,
upon them
it
patience
thus brought out and magnified, that
may
set
:
forth the yet
more wonderful forbearance and long-suffering of God

sent unto
" Howbeit
you
all
my
servants the prophets, rising early

this
and sending them, saying. Oh, do not

(Jer.
xliv. 4.)
abominable thing that
hate."
" 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

ix.
provocations." (Neh.
26.)
The whole
confession
made
in that
chapter
by the Levites is in itself an admirable commentary on this parable. " But last of all he sent unto them his son," or in the still more affect
ing words of St. Mark, (ver. 6,)
well-beloved, he sent
" Having yet therefore one son, his

unto them, saying. They will reverence
him also
last
'
AireiTTti'kav rtriyoiiiivov.

my son."
(See Heb.
i.
163
effort
1.)
This was the

the
last
and crowning
of
divine mercy, after which, on
one side
all
the resources even of

is
heavenly love are exhausted, on the other the measure of sins

fectly filled up.
per-
The
description of the son as the only one, as the wellpossible the difference of rank between
beloved,
marks as strongly as
him and the servants, the worth and dignity of his person, who only was a Son in the highest sense of the word ;* (see Heb. iii. 5, 6 ;) and undoubtedly they who were our Lord's actual hearers quite understood what
he meant, and the honour which
in these
words he claimed as
his
own,
though they were unable
to
turn his words against himself, and to accuse
him on
the strength of them,
of making himself, as indeed he did then
affirm himself, the

conviction, that
Son of God.
evil
When
the householder expresses his
however those
men may have
outraged his inferior

it is
messengers, they will stand in awe of and reverence his son,
hardly
worth while
that he
to
make
a difficulty here, as
some have done, from

must have
fully
the fact
whom
:
the householder represents
known from
to
the beginning
what treatment
his
Son would receive from those

it is
whom
same
which
it
he sent him
difficulty
not
that there is not a difficulty, but that
the
which runs through every
thing, that of the relations in

to
man's freedom and God's foreknowledge stand

else,
one another f
it
and
does not in truth come out more strongly here than
does everywhere
and therefore requires not to be especially treated of in this place. " But ivhen the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves,
is the heir ;
This
come,
let
us kill him, and
let
us seize on his inheritance."
Compare John
xi.
47-53, and the counsels of Joseph's brethren against
him, Gen. xxxvii, 19;
"When
this
they saw him afar
off,
even before he
him, and they
therefore,
came near unto

let
thegi, they conspired against
him
to slay
said one to another.
Behold
dreamer cometh.
Come now
become of
his
us slay him,
.... and we
it
shall see
what
will
dreams."
As
they, thinking to defeat the purpose of

to pass, so the
God concerning
their
younger
brother, helped to bring
Jewish rulers were the instru-
ments
to fulfil that
purpose of God concerning Christ which they meant
* This has been often observed by the early Church writers

vinity of the
when proving
the di-
Son
;
as by
Ambrose {De Fide,
1.
5, c. 7)
Vide quia ante servos, postea
filium nominavit
ut scias
quod Deus Filius unigenitus secundilm divinitatis potentiam
nee nomen habet, nee consortium

c.
commune cum
servis.
Cf. Irenjeus, Con. Hcer.,
1.
4,
36, 1. + Jerome:
citur:
Quod autem dicit, Verebuntur forte filium meum, non de ignorantia diQuid enim nesciat Paterfamilias, qui hoc loco Deus intelligitur ? Sed semper
dicitur, ut libera
ambigere Deus
1.
voluntas homini reservetur.
Cf.
Ambose, De Fide,
5, c. 17,
1^
164
to

(Acts,
iii.
bring to nothing.*
for
18
iv.
27, 28.)
to
" This
is the heirj^'
he
whom
the inheritance
is
meant, and
whom it
it is
will in
due course
rightfully arrive
not as in earthly relations, by the death, but by the
free appointment, of the actual possessor.

is
For
evident that
lord,"!"
"heir"
com-
not here used, as
it
often laxly
is,
synonyme
Phil.
ii.
for
but the idea
of one
ing
to
who
it,
is
not in present possession of a good, but hereafter is

fast.
must be held
i.
(Compare
he
is
9-11.)
Christ
for the
is
" heir
of
all
things," (Heb.
2,) not as
the
Son of God,
Church
has always detected Arian tendencies lurking in that interpretation, but as he is the Son of man. So Theodoret " The Lord Christ is heir of
:
all things,
It is
not as God, but as
man
in
for as
God he
;
is
maker of
all."
the heart
which speaks
their lips
God's hearing
the thought of
men's
it
heart
is
their true
speech and therefore here given even as though

;
were the words of

him;''''
the
husbandmen
say, " Come,
let
us kill
not that
we
are to imagine that the Pharisees even in their
secretest counsels ever trusted one another so far, or dared to look their
own wickedness
so directly in the face, as thus to say,

let
'=
This
is
the
Messiah, therefore
us slay him."
should be theirs, they desired that
But they desired the inheritance what God had intended should only
till
be transient and temporary, enduring
the times of reformation, should

pri-
be made permanent,
and
this,
because they had prerogatives and
vileges under the imperfect system,
which would cease when the more perfect scheme was brought in, or rather which, not ceasing, would yet be transformed into other higher privileges, for. which they had no
care.
The
great master-builder
was about
its
to
take
down
the temporary
scaffolding
which had now served

cost, to resist to the
end, and this his purpose they the

resist,:}:
under-builders were setting themselves to

at
ajad
were determined,
whatever
uttermost.
And
of
further,
may we
not
see in this thought of killing the heir, and seizing on the inheritance and
making
which
is
it
their
own, an allusion
to the principle
all
self-righteousness,
a seizing on the divine inheritance, a seeking to

into self that light,
self,
comprehend
it is
and take down
which
is
only light while

is
recog-
nized as something above
and whereof man
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

which, by the very success of the attempt
is
it
from another; a
take
*
it
ligiit too,
to
into his
own
Ut
possession,
as inevitably lost and extinguished, as
Augustine
possiderent, occiderunt, et quia occiderunt, perdiderunt.
t Just as in Latin oftentimes hzeres

t
= dominus.
presumptio, spes inanis
retineri.
Hilary
Consilium colonorum
et haeriditatis occiso hierede
est gloriam
Leges perempto Christo posse

would be a ray of our natural
from
"
its
^55
in
light if
we succeeded
cutting
it
off
luminous source
a truth
and
of which angels and
men have made
mournful experience.
him out of the virieyard, and slew him as thus " cast out of the vineyard," by which we are reminded of him who " suffered without the (Heb, xiii. 12, 13 John xix. 17.) By that, as in the Pentagate." teuch by the exclusion from the camp, was signified the cutting off from
cast
And
they caught him
him."
All three narrators describe
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
it
him with
stones, that
he died."*
(1 Kin. xxi. L3.)

first,
In St.
Mark
would rather seem that having

:
slain the son
they afterwards cast

:
out the body

it
they denied
it
the
common
rites
of sepulture
they flung
that
forth to
their
show what they had done, and as much as answer to the householder's demands.
the tale of these
to say,
was
Having brought
and prophesied
husbandmen's
guilt to a conclusion,
to the
Jewish rulers the wickedness which in a few days

"j"
they should accomplish,

fore,
It is
Christ proceeds to ask, " When the lord, thereof the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those hushandmen ?" very observable how the successive generations, who for so many
centuries had been filling up the measure of the iniquity of Israel, are
considered, throughout the entire parable, but as one body of husband-
men. And this, because God's truth is everywhere opposed to that shallow nominalism which would make such a word as " nation " a dead abstraction, a
mere convenient help
to the
understanding.
God
will deal
with nations as indeed being, as having a living unity in themselves, as

in fact bodies,
and not as being merely convenient mental terms

Unless
this
to
ex-
press certain aggregations of individuals.

fession of
were
so, all
con-
our fathers' sins would be mere mockery, and such passages
as Matt, xxiii. 32-35, without any^
meaning
at all.
This
is
one of the
The
act of
Naboth dying
for his
vineyard has been often adduced as a prophecy,
not by word, but by deed, of the death of Christ and the purpose of that death.
Thus,
Ambrose addresses
his
the vineyard of the Lord, the
own
blood (a:p. in
iwc,
1.
9, c. 33)
Church which he has purchased with te non Salve vinea tanto digna custode
:
unius Nabuthae sanguis, sed innumerabilium prophetarum et (quod est amplius) pretiosus curor Domini consecravit. lUe
.
. .
temporalem vineam defendebat,

interitus, te
te
vero in
perpetuum multorum nobis martyrum plantavit
crux apostolorum aemula
Dominicaj passlonis usque in orbis totius terminos propagavit.

t
We
have a remarkable example of a like prophesying
to
men
their wickedness,
as a last endeavour to turn them

zael,
away from
that wickedness, in Elisha's prophecy to
Ha-
2 Kin.
viii.
12-15.
166

in
many ways
cies
;
and while there
which God encounters our selfish, self-isolating tendenis an abundant blessing in this law of his governit
ment, supplying as
does
new
each
motives and incentives to good, so

it.
is
there no hardship or injustice in
For while there

even should
chastised for
is
life
of the
whole, there
is
also a life of
part, so that
nation, in that of its generations

fathers' iniquities,
which
is
all its
we belong to a own and its

is
a generation upon which, having filled up the last
drop of the measure, the accumulated weight of chastisement

ing,
descend-
yet
it
remains always possible
for
every individual even of that
generation, by personal faith and repentance, to withdraw himself, not
indeed always from sharing in the outward calamity, though often there
will be an ark
when
a world perishes, a Pella
when Jerusalem
is
de-
stroyed, but always to withdraw himself from that which really constitutes the calamity,
is
the wrath of God, of
which the outward
visitation
but the expression.
The
renders
necessity of preserving the due probabilities of the narrative

it,
of course, impossible that

is
it
should be the son, through
whom
the final vengeance
executed on these thankless and wicked husbandlike
men
he
is
slain,
and cannot,
him whom he shadows

It
forth, rise
again to take just vengeance on his murderers.

the lord of the vineyard,
must necessarily be
is
that
is,
the Father
neither
there
any thing
here which
is
not easily reconcileable to the general doctrine of the

it is
Scripture, for
the Father revealing himself in the Son,
who
to
both
gave the law
at Sinai,
and will
also, in the
end of time, return
take
vengeance on all that obey not the Gospel. In the question itself, " When the lord of the vineyard cometh, lohat will he do unto those husbandmen ?" Christ makes the same appeal to his hearers, compelling them to
condemn themselves out of

done before.*
self,
It
their
own mouths, which

to
Isaiah (v. 3) had
may
be that the Pharisees,
whom
he addressed himdid,
had as yet missed the scope of the parable, answering as they

will miserably destroy those
"
He
wicked men,'\ and will

so,
;
let
out his vine-
yard unto other husbaridmen," and
before they were aware, pro-
nounced sentence against themselves

therefore rendered necessary the
or Olshausen
may
be more corits drift,
rect in supposing that they as yet pretended not to perceive

still
and
more
explicit words, (ver. 42-44,)
* Vitringa there observes
Tam
enim liquidum
est
Dei
jus, ut si
homo exuto
vult,
af-
fectu in tertio simili contempletur
quod sui ainore excascatus in se videre non

Inio
in
per
conscientiam obligatur ad agnosceiulam causae divinae justitiam.
neminem Deus
su-
damnat,
nisi
quern sua condeninet conscientia.

sui
um tribunal,
aedem
judicii, et per
enim Deus honiineni de homine judicat.

Ilabel
omni homine
t Ka/fovj KUKui, a proverbial expression, and one as Grotius observes, petila ex pu-
rissimo sermone Graeco
he does not, however, give any examples.
This remarkable

which
it
iQj
:
was impossible any longer
to affect to
misunderstand
" There-
fore I say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." Then at length
Christ and his adversaries stood face to face, as did once before a pro-
phet and a wicked king of Israel,

his disguise a sentence
when
the prophet, having obtained in
from the
lips of the
king against himself, remov-
ed the ashes from his face, and the king " discerned him that he was of the prophets," and that he had unconsciously pronounced his own doom. (1 Kin. xx. 41.) The " God forbid," which, according to St.
Luke, the people uttered when they heard the bandmen, gives evidence
their
terrible
doom of
the hus-
that the scope of the parable had not escaped
comprehension,
that they
had understood
it,
even before
its
plain
interpretation at the last.*
The
Pharisees had too
much
wariness and
self-command
them.
to
have allowed such an exclamation

itself
to
have escaped from

never
The
exclamation
was
either an expression of fear, desiring

unbelief, "
that such evil might be averted,

it is
or of
That
shall
be,
last
impossible that our privileges can ever be so forfeited :"

spirit
This
it
is
more probable from the
and temper of those who give
utter-
ance.
Thereupon
the Lord,
in
confirmation of this truth so strange to his
hearers, quotes a prophecy from the Old Testament, which proved that
such a turn of things had been contemplated long before
in the counsels
one, which
is
a parallel in
much more than
those two words,
may
suffice in place of
many
that
might be adduced.
Toiyap
a(p'
'OXifinoti Toiii' o irpeaPncov Trarrip,
M-vfifitov t' 'Epivvvif Kal Tc\cr(j>6pos
AUr)
Kaxotij KOKuis (pdeipeiav, Snyntp iiOeXov
Tdv
avSpa \u0aii UPaKeXv, dynîu);.
Sophocles. Ajax, 1389.
Our version has not attempted

sons
iii.
to preserve the
paronomasia, which
double
for
evident rea-
is far
from being easy.
The same
difficulty attends the
(pdcipcn', (1
Cor.
17,)
for
:
which our version has equally

te
. .
.
failed to give
an equivalent.
Compare
Apuleius
At
pessimum pessime perdant.

in
In
Plutarch's Amator. 10,
we
meet Ka\dv
koXus.
How remarkable
connexion with
this
passage are those words of
Josephus, {Bell. Jud., 4, 5, 2,) in which he asserts his conviction that the causes of the
destruction of Jerusalem might be traced up to the
murder of one man, Ananus the
high priest
he only errs
in the person
1.
whom
may
in
he names.
is
* Augustine (Z)e Cons. Evang.,
2, c. 70)
not very successful in his scheme for
reconciling any slight discrepancy which

the different Evangelists
,
here appear between the narratives of

is
but the apparent discrepancy
in itself so slight,
and so
easily removable, that even Strauss,
who
general
makes
the weakest
it
and thousand
to
times refuted objections do service anew, has not thought
worth while
bring for-
ward
this.
168
of
God
" Did
is
ye never read
in the
Scriptures,
The
stone which the
builders rejected, the
same
is
become
the head of the corner ?"
The
quotation
from Ps.
cxviii. 22,
23, a psalm of wliich, as

to the
;
already has
been noted, the Jews recognized the application
Messiah, and of
ii.
which there
allusion
is
the
same application
at
Acts
ii.
iv.
11
1 Pet.
and an
somewhat more remote, Ephes.
20.*
The passage quoted
forms an exact parallel with this parable.
husbandmen
they were
reason
appointed of
building, as these to cultivate the
The builders answer to the God to carry up the spiritual spiritual vineyard. The rejection of
to the
the chief corner stone

the heir.
answers exactly
denying and murdering

one important part of
The
is
why
its
he leaves for a moment the image of the'

to set forth
vineyard,
the truth,
this, that
because of
inadequacy
to
which yet was needful
make
the moral complete,
namely
the malice of the Pharisees should not defeat the purpose of
God,
that the son should yet be the heir,
that not
merely vengeance
set
should be taken, but that he should take

forth
it.
Now
this is distinctly
by the rejected stone becoming the head of the corner, on which on which they were the builders stumbled and fell, and were broken, f now already thus stumbling and falling, and which, if they set them-
selves against
it
to the end,
would
14
fall
upon them and crush and destroy

at
them
his
utterly.:}:
;
They
(Isai.
fall
on the stone, who are offended

;
Christ in
low estate
were already
guilty.
34 ;) of this sin his hearers There was yet a worse sin which they were on
viii.
ii.
Luke
the point of committing, which he
warns them would be followed with a
more tremendous punishment
they on
whom
the stone falls are they
who
set
themselves in distinct and self-conscious opposition against the

is,
Lord,
who, knowing who he

to his
do yet to the end oppose themselves

fall
to
him and
kingdom
and they shall not merely
and be broken,
*
7.
The
dKpoywviaioi there
:
\iOoi th
Ke(j>a\tjv
yMi/iai here
v. 17.) It
the headstone of Zech.
iv.
Aquila
o AiOuj
-KpoiTiiwi'.
(See 1 Kin.
was a
favourite view of the
early Fathers that Christ

the
Gentile,
instance
was called the corner stone, because he united the Jew and making both one thus Augustine, in almost numberless places, for Angulus duos parietes copulat de diverse venientes. Quid (Serin. 88, c. 11)
:
tam diversum, quarn circumcisio
et
prtEputium, habens
unum
:
parietem de JudaeA, alte-
rum parietem
t Cajetan
de gentibus
:
sed angular) lapide copulantur.
Plus subjungit
quam
parabola pateretur
Parabola enim usque ad vin-
dictam duxit
itate
X
:
sed hac additione suppletur, quod occisio

significat adjuncta prophetia de
filii
non privavit
filium haeredlapidis.
hoc enim
Messia sub nietamorphosa
Lachmann marks
;
ver.
44
in
Matthew, as an
its
interpolation, brought in from St.
Luke
it
and
it
certainly
seems out of
place, as one
would have naturally looked
for
after ver. 42.
So Tertullian, (Adv. Marc,
1.
3,
c.
7)
and Augustine
Christus varus lapis in
hoc seculo quasi
terra; infixus jacet, in judicio
vero futuro quasi ex
summo
veniet,
im-

for
169
one might recover himself, though with some present harm, from such
as this
fall
powder,
but on them the stone shall fall and shall grind * them to in the words of Daniel, " like the chaff of the summer thresh;
ing-floors," destroying
them with a doom
irreversible,
and from which
there should be no recovery.
All three Evangelists notice the exasperation of the chief priests and
scribes,
when they
perceived, as they
all
did at last, though
it
would
seem some sooner than others, that the parable was spoken against them : they no longer kept any terms with the Lord, and, had they not feared Yet not even the people, would have laid violent hands on him at once.
so did he give
relation to
them up
but as he had, in this parable, set forth their
God
as a relation of duty, as he had
shown them how a charge

guilt
was
laid
upon them, which they incurred the greatest

fulfil,
and the most
fearful danger in neglecting to
so in the ensuing parable,

it
of the
Marriage of the King's Son, he

as a relation of privilege,
sets
forth in a yet
more
inviting light
not any
to
more
them
as a duty and charge, but as

;
a grace and boon freely imparted
which yet they incurred an
equal danger and guilt in counting light of or despising.
pios conteret
sabit
hoc dictum
est
de lapide
illo,
Qui
offenderit in lapidem ilium, conquas-
eum, super quern

from
venerit, conteret
eum:
ill.
aliud est conquassari, aliud conteri
conquassari minus est
quam conteri.
AiKfifjaei,
Xi*f/iof
tttvov,
Matt.
12, the fan with
which
the chaff,
is
which in
scattered
the act of threshing had been crushed and broken into minute fragments,
and driven away upon the wind.

here
t
;
(Isai. xli. 2, 15, 16.)

ii.
In the
N. T.
it
occurs only
in the parallel passage,
Dan.
44,
\iKiJifiaci -rraa-a;
ra; Bnai'Xcias.
(Annott. in Luc.)
fidelibus
H. De Sto Victore makes the following application of the parable to every man Secundum moralem sensum vinea locatur, ciim mysterium baptismi
:
ad exercendum opere committitur.
Mittuntur tres servi ut de fructu accipiant,

:
cum Lex,
Psalmodia, Prophetia, ad bene agendum hortatur
sed contumeliis
affecti,
vel caesi ejiciuntur,
cum sermo
auditus vel contemnitur, vel blaspheraatur.
Missum
est,
in-
super haeredem occidit, qui filium Dei contemnit, et spiritui quo sanctificatus
con-
tumeliam
facit.
Vinea
alteri datur,
cum
gratis,
quam superbus
abjicit,
humilis ditatur.
12
IJQ
THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S
SON.
PARABLE
XII.

Matthew
xxii.
SON.*
1-14.
This parable, and that which is found at Luke xiv. 16, are not to be confounded with one another,! as if they were only two different versions of the same discourse, though Calvin, indeed, and others have so confounded them. It is true that the same image lies at the root of both, yet it is plain that they were that, namely, of an invitation to a festival
spoken on very different occasions,
that at a meal, this in the temple,
and
that, too, at a
much
earlier period of our Lord's ministry than this.
For then the

itself,
hostility of the Pharisaic party

to
had not yet openly declared

it
nor indeed reached that pitch
which
afterwards arrived
on
the contrary,
one of the chief Pharisees, on the very occasion when the other parable was spoken, had invited the Saviour to eat bread
we
find
with him. (Luke xiv. 1.)
But when
this parable
was spoken,
their hos-
tility had already attained to the highest point, even to the formal deter,
mination of making
53.)
to
away with
:
Christ by violent means. (John xi.

that they might, perhaps, be
Then
there
was yet hope
47won over
obedience to the truth now they were fixed in their rejection of the counsel of God, and in their hatred of his Christ. And consistently with the different times, and the different tempers of the hearers, the parable
in St.
Luke wears
a milder, in St. Matthew a severer, aspect
in the
latter the
guilt is greater, the retribution
more
terrible.
In that other,
;
the guests decline indeed the invitation, but civilly excuse themselves
in this,
they mark
it
their contempt for the invitation as strongly as they
worth their while to make any excuse, and some of and killing the servants, the bearers of the message. them maltreating
can, not thinking
Doubtless
too,
had
it
consisted with the
decorum of the other
parts of the
narration, the king's son himself would have been the bearer of the invi-
* This
title,
which
is
the one given to the parable in the heading of the chapter in

it
our version, seems preferable to that by which
is
sometimes
called,
namely, the
Wedding Garment
for
then the
name
is
is
given, not from the

it
:
the narrative, but from that
which
but an episode in
main circumstance of and the other title. The
Marriage of the King's Son, quite as effectually distinguishes the present parable from that of the Great Supper in St. Luke.
t See Augustine,
De
Cons. Evang.,
1.
2, c. 71.

tation
SON.
jy-j
was the householder's son in In that, the contemptuous guests are merely excluded from the festival, in this, their city is burned up and themselves
their outrage, as
and the victim of
the last parable.
de-
stroyed.
And
as the contempt
would be aggravated
in proportion to the
and other, who makes the festival, so that rebellion is mingled with their contempt, and the festival itself no ordinary one, but one in honour of his son's marriage ; by which latter circumstance is brought out the relation of the Jews, not merely to
dignity and honour of the person inviting and the solemnity of the occasion, this increased guilt is set forth by the fact of it being a king,
in that
no common man, as
the
kingdom of God in general, but their relation to Jesus, the personal theocratic King ; and in every way the guilt involved in their rejection of him is heightened. And again, while in the parable recorded by St.
Luke, nothing more is threatened than that God would turn from one portion of the Jewish people, from the priests and the Pharisees, and
offer the benefits
nation,
which they counted
light of, to another part of the
same
the people that
knew
not the law, the publicans and harlots,
with only a slight intimation (ver. 23) of the call of the Gentiles; in St. Matthew it is threatened that the kingdom of God shall be taken wholly
away from the Jewish people, who had now proved themselves in the mass, and with very few exceptions, despisers of its privileges, and should be given to the Gentiles.*
But one of the latest cavillers,f not attending to these circumstances which justify and perfectly explain the appearance of the parable
in
forms so
different,
asserts that here St.
Luke
is
the only accurate nar-
Matthew has mixed up with them some particulars, as of the maltreatment and murder of the servants, drawn from the parable preceding and has also blended into the same whole, the fragment of another, namely, the Wedding Garment, which when uttered, was totally distinct. For the first assertion his only argument wearino- the
some heterogeneous elements,
rator of Christ's words, and that St.
for instance,
slightest
appearance of probability,
is,
that while
it is
quite intelligible
their lord,
how
the
husbandmen should abuse and maltreat servants of
* Fleck {De Reg.

Matthaeiani
iibri
Dix>., p. 241) with truth observes: Parabolarum in posterioribus partibus propositarum talis est indoles, ut sacrum divini animi mcero-
rem spirent, et severum prodant habitum. Incidunt in ea tempora quibus Pharisseorum, sacerdotum, seniorumque plebis machinationem, maligna consilia, et ccecitatem abunde expertus Servator, divina; caussB quotidie infestiores prsvidit futuros.
And
Unger [De Parah.

severiorem,
Jes. Nat., p.
122)
Videtur itaque Matthaeus parabolam tradidisse,

ipse repetierit, variatam, auctiorem,
qualem Jesus posteriore eaque austeriore occasione
jam
:
toto de populo judaico mceste vaticinantera.
t Strauss
Leben
Jesu., v. 1, p. 677, seq.
172
THE MARRIAGE OP THE KING'S

rent from
SON.
and thereis,
who came demanding

fore could
them
it
is
inconceivable,
not find place in
a parable, of which the very condition
that
it
should have perfect verisimilitude,

to
that invited guests,
however
kill
unwilling
keep their engagement, should actually maltreat and
the servants sent to remind
them
It is
that the festival, to
which they were

diffi-
engaged, was now ready.

culty be conceived,
of course true that this can with
when we suppose no
other motive but unwilling-
ness to keep the engagement at work in them.
But may we not rather

its
presume
sist
that a deep alienation from their lord, with a readiness to re-
and rebel against him, existing long before, found
utterance here
In the presence of these his ambassadors, an outrage against
whom would
express as
much
as an outrage against himself, the desired occasion
may have
offered itself for
showing an
hostility,
which had long been

fact, that
entertained.*
The
little
apparent motive makes their conduct almost

declare the monstrous
monstrous, yet thus
fitter to
men
should
maltreat and slay the messengers of God's grace, the ambassadors of

Christ,
who came
to
to
them with glad
tidings of good
things,
should be
ready
rend them, as well as to tread their pearls under
foot.
the weddincp
His other objection, that the latter part of the parable which relates to garment cannot have originally belonged to it, is partly the having
which, as the course of the story goes, he had no opportunity of
old one, that the guest could not in justice be punished for not
that,
obtaining
rnark
on and
into,
which objection there

is
will be occasion presently to reintro-
partly, that this
an entirely new and alien element

of,
duced
to,
and marring the unity

it.
the parable
something appended
not intimately cohering with
But
so far from this being the case,
we
have here a wonderful example of the love and wisdom which mark-
For how fitting was it in a discourse ed the teaching of our Lord. forth how sinners of every degree were invited to a fellowship which set
in the blessings of the Gospel, that
they should be reminded likewise,

off their
that
for the lasting
enjoyment of these, they must put
former
to the
conversation,
in
Theophylact's words, " that the entrance, indeed,

without scrutiny, for by grace alone
;
marriage-feast
is
we
are
all called,
as well bad as good
but the
:
life
of those that have entered, hereafter

will
shall not be without scrutiny
the King
king
;
make
a very strict exam-
* Oftentimes in the East, a feast would have a great political significance, would in
fact be a great gathering of the vassals of the
contemplated on
this side, their re-
fusal to
to
come
at once
assumes the aspect of

i.
rebellion.
is
Thus
there are
many
reasons
same as the great gathering which Xerxes (Ahasuerus) made when he was planning his Greek expedition, (aiWoyov iniK'KrfTDv Ticpaiwv tmv apiarwi', Herod. 1. 7, c. 8,) though Herodotus brings out more its
suppose that the feast recorded in Esth.
the
political, the
sacred historian
its festal, side.
SON.
I73
ination of those who, having entered into the faith, shall be found in filthy
garments"
a most needful caution, lest any should abuse the grace of God, and forget that while as regarded the past they were freely called,
they were yet
now Thus much on

the
called unto holiness. the relation in
which
this
parable stands to that relast,
corded by St. Luke.
In the present, as compared with the
we
see
how
Lord
is
revealing himself in ever clearer light as the central
person of the kingdom, giving here a far plainer hint than there of the There he was indeed the son, the only and benobility of his descent.
loved one, of the householder
;
but here his race
is
royal,
and he ap-
pears as himself at once the king, and the king's son.
(Ps. Ixxii. 1.)
This appearance of the householder, as the king, announces that the sphere in which this parable moves is the New Testament dispensation
is
the kingdom, which
sent with the
was announced before, but was only actually precoming of the king. That last was a parable of the Old Testa;
ment
history
even Christ himself appears there rather as the

its
last
and
greatest of the line of
prophets and teachers, than as the founder of a
new kingdom.
In that, a parable of the law,

;
something from men

giving something
not complied with
to
in this, a parable of grace,
God appears demanding God appears more as

demands are
;
them.
here,
There, he
that his
is
displeased that his

is
goodness
not accepted
there he
requires, here he imparts.

ally complete one another
left
it.
;
And
this
thus, as
we
so often find, the two mutu-
taking up the matter, where the other
The two
favourite images under
which the prophets

all
set forth the
blessino-s of the
new
covenant, and of
;
near communion with God,

v.
that of a festival (Isai. xxv. 6, Ixv. 13
Cant.
1) and
ix.
that of a
;
mar-
riage,* (Isai. Ixi. 10,
Ixii.
Hos.
ii.
19; Matt.
15
John
iii.
29;
2,) are united and interpenetrate one another Ephes. V. ; marriage festival f here. There appears indeed this inconvein the
32
2 Cor.
xi.
The
phrase noidv
is
y//oi/,
occurring Gen. xxix. 22
Tob.
viii.
19
Mace.
ix.
37, X. 58, (LXX.,)
rather, as also often in classical Greek, to celebrate the marriage

;
Esth. ii. 18,) and sometimes the notion of feast than the marriage, (see Matt. xxv. 10 so for instance, the marriage is altogether lost, and that of the festival alone remains
:
Esth.
ix.
22, where the yaôi are merely feastings
not otherwise, I think, should the
word be understood at Luke xiv. 8, and at ver. 4 of the present parable. Singularly enough, exactly the reverse has happened with the German Hochzeit, which signifying These marriage fesat first any high festival, is now only the festival of a marriage.
tivities
lasted
19.)
commonly seven
or fourteen days.
(Gen. xxix. 27
Judg. xiv. 12;
Tob.
viii.
Nuptioe ipsas figurant arctissimam Christi cum + Vitringa {In Apocal., xix. 7) Ecclesid unionem, fide utrinque data, et fcederali contractu obsignatam, ad faciendam
:
spiritualem sobolem, quse orbem repleat.
Epulum
nuptiale adumbrat
tum
beneficia
174
nience,

resulting from the inadequacy of things
SON.
human
to
set forth
things divine, that the
members of the Church

feast is given.*
are at once the guests inconstitute the bride
vited to the feast, and, in their collective capacity,

at
But in the progress of the narrative the circumstances of the marriage altogether fall into the back ground ;f the different conduct of the guests invited to the feast becomes
the prominent feature of the narration.
its
whose espousals the
This parable, like the
last,
has
groundwork and
;
its
rudiments in the Old Testament, (Exod. xxiv.

ix. 1,)
11
Zeph.
i.
7,
Prov.
and
it
entered quite into the circle of
Jewish expectations, that the setting up of the kingdom of the Messiah

should be accompanied
with,
and ushered
in by,
to
a glorious festival
and elsewhere our Lord himself does not refuse
make
xxii.
at
use of the same

18, 30.)
It is
image
for the setting forth the
same
is
till
truths.
(Luke
true indeed that the marriage
spoken of there, and
Rev.
xix. 7, as
one that shall not take place

the Lord speaks of
easily reconcilable,
it
the end of the present age, while here
as already present; but the two statements are

in
when we keep
mind how
not
distinct the
espousals
first
and the actual marriage were held in the East, and contemplate his
coming as the time of

will
his espousals, while
till
his
second coming
he lead home his bride.

fitting
At a
time the king " sent forth his servants \

wedding''^
to call
them that
were hidden
for in the
to the
we must presume, a
numerous company,
private
man
corresponding parable in St. Luke, the giver of the feast, a as it would seem, " bade many." Here then we may sup-
pose
feast
still
larger numbers to have been bidden, even as the maker of the was a greater person, and the occasion a more solemn one. (Comi.
pare Esth.
3-9.)
This second
invitation,
or
admonishment
rather,
gratioe, quae vi justitiae
Christi Ecclesise ad satietatem et hilaritatem exhibenlur, turn

turn denique leetitiam et festivitatem, quaB
illorum beneficiorum
fruitione
communionem,
cum
bonorum
gratiae conjungitur, et
ex ea ad convivas hujus epuli redundat.

:
* Augustine {In Ep. 1 Joh. Tract. 2)
Non quomodo
in
nuptiis carnalibus alii

si
frequentant
nuptias et alia nubit
in Ecclesia
qui frequentant,
bene frequentant,
sponsa
fiunt.
t This difficulty
would be altogether escaped,
if
we understood
this
marriage as one
between the Divine

one Christ
stood
it,
;
Word and
the
human Nature,
God and man united
and making
so Augustine and Gregory the Great (Horn. 38 in Evang.,) have underto the exclusion of the
though certainly neither

v.
more obvious meaning suggestthe

ei
ed by such passages as Ephes.
2432, according to which the marriage would be one
between Christ and
his
Church.
Gregory shows how well

filio
two interpretations can

per incarnationis mys-
be reconciled, saying, In hoc Pater regi
nuptias
fecit,
quo
terium sanctam Ecclesiam sociavit.

\
Technically vocatores, invitatores, kX^toae;,
^cin-i-o/i-X/jropff,
iXcarpoi.
See Prov.
ix.
3-5.

is
SON.
invites
is
175
quite
according to Eastern manners.

v. 8,)
Thus Esther
Haman
actually(vi. 14.)
to a
banquet on the morrow, (Esth.
and when the time
arrived, the chamberlain
comes
Modern
travellers testify to the
to bring him to the banquet, same custom now of repeating
the invi-
tation to a great entertainment, at
the
moment when
at all
all
things are in
actual readiness
so that there
is
no reason
why
with some
we
to
should
make
" them that loere bidden'^ to
mean them
lie
that
were now
be bidden.*
Indeed, deeper reasons than those that

ble are against this
invited long before,
;
on the surface of the parato
for
our Lord in assuming the guests

that the
have been
would bring out
new was
to
all
not indeed new,
but rather a fulfilment of the old, that he claimed
be heard, not as
one suddenly starting up, and unconnected with

fore him, but as himself the
end of the law, that
to
which had gone bewhich it all had been

to all.
tending, the birth with which the whole Jewish dispensation had been
pregnant,
and which
at length
gave
its
meaning
When
would
he
says, " to call them that were bidden," he teaches us, as he
fain in
have taught those who then heard him, that there was nothing sudden
the
fore
coming
in
of his kingdom, that
its
rudiments had a long while be-
tory
been laid, that all which they clung to as precious in their past hiswas prophetic of blessings now actually present to themselves. f The
invitation first elect people,
went
forth at the constitution of the

all their history.
Jewish nation as God's

It
and ran through
was taken up and

presence in
to hold
repeated by each succeeding prophet, as he prophesied of the crowning
grace that should one day be brought

the midst of
it
to Israel in the actual
of
its
Lord and King, and summoned the people
themselves in a spiritual readiness against that day.
Yet they never did more than thus

spoke of good things
to
bid the guests, for they onlv
come.
The
actual calling of " them that loere

first in
bidden'^ pertained not to them.
John the Baptist was the
whose
time the kingdom was actually present, the wedding feast prepared, the
king and the king's son manifested, and the long-invited guests sum-
moned.
By
the
first
band of servants
should certainly
mission
now underac-
stand John and the apostles in their
first
that
which they
complished during the lifetime of the Lord, his Incarnation being the
* Thus Storr (Opusc. Acad.,
nify vocandos as vocatos!
cisive in the matter.
t
v. 1, p.
120) affirms rov;

refute itself,
KCK^rifiivov;
may
as well sig-
Did not
this
Luke
xiv. 16, 17,
would be de-
See in
its
this
view the admirable use which Tertullian makes of
this
c.
parable, or
31.)
rather of
parallel;
(Luke
xiv. IG,)
arguing against Marcion,
(1.
4,
whose
great aim was to cut loose the

H<Er.,
1.
New
Testament from the Old.
So
too Irenaeus, Con.
4, c. 36.
176

summoning them,
which
it
SON.
in
true bridal of the earth and heaven.*

guests,
that
is,
His own share
summoning
is
the
unto himself, "

It
Come
unto me,"
na-
turally in the parable kept out of sight.

proprieties
would have disturbed those

have made the king's son
was needful
to observe, to
himself a bearer of the invitation; but yet did he in the reality of his
infinite
condescension sustain the double character, and he for

to
whom the
was no
marriage was made, was content himself

guests thereunto.
be sent forth
to call the
We
observe upon this
first
;
occasion, there
actual maltreatment of the servants sent out
a general averseness from
the message, and alienation from the messengers,

tive outrage
nor was
but
to
as yet no posilife-
thei-e
such against the apostles during the

against the Lord himself.
toill
time of the Lord,f nor
at the first
It
was
simply " they would not come.'"
"
Ye
not
come
me, that ye
may
have
life."
''Again he sent forth other servants."
The second sending
forth of
the servants describes that renewed invitation to the

:
Jews which was
made subsequent to the Crucifixion of this, as was needful, nothing was said, for the parable would not bear it. It need not perplex us to
find these
spoken of as " other" servants, while,

In the
first
in fact,
were the same.

of preachers.
place, there were
many
other
many of them now associ-
company same yet went forth as new men, full of the Holy Ghost, and with a somewhat altered message, not preaching generally a kingdom of God, but preaching now " Jesus and the resurrection;" declaring, which it may be observed they had not
Those,
too,
ated with them, Stephen and Barnabas and Paul and a great
who were
the
done before, that
all
things were ready
that all the obstacles
which
man's
iii.
sin
had reared up, God's grace had removed

;
19-26
iv.
12
;)
that in that very blood

all sins,
39; ; which they had impiously

ii.
(Acts
38,
shed, there
was forgiveness of
and freedom of access
to
God.
* These missions by the king of his servants

been sometimes differently understood.
to
summon
the guests (ver. 3, 4)
have
Thus Origen applies them both to the sending of the prophets under the law; Jerome makes no doubt that the first mission (ver. 3) is to be so understood, though he is more doubtful about the second. So too Gregory the Great
misit, quia
(Horn. 38 in Evarig.) understands

et per
it
Bis itaque servos ad invitandum
Incarnationem Unigcniti
I
prophetas dixit futuram, et per Apostoios

is in
nunciavit factam.
am now
persuaded however that Hilary's
the
main
the true
explanation
who {Com.
in Matth., in loc.) thus expresses himself: Servi missi, qui

:
invitatos vocarent, Apostoli sunt
eorum enim
erat proprium,
commonefacere
eos,
quos invilaverant prophetae.
Qui vero iterum cum prseceptorum conditione mittuntur,

he by whose
Apostolici sunt viri et successores Apostolorum.

t
The death
it
of John cannot be here adduced
for
command
at all
he
was
murdered was an Edomite, not therefore one of the invited guests

over,
and more-
was
for
preaching the law, not the Gospel, that he died.

And
let
SON.
I77
us not miss in the parable or in

to the
its
application the infinite grace
which gives
guests the opportunity of coming to a better mind,

first
and making good their

it
contempt.
The
king, as though he thought
possible that they deferred coming, as not being aware that the prepa-
rations
were yet completed, or that some other misunderstanding had
found place, instead of threatening or rebuking, told his servants only to " Tell them press the message with greater distinctness and instancy
:
which are hidden," so

terior preparation is
tell
them
that they cannot mistake, that every anall things are
made,* and that now "
ready."
;
And
;
exactly thus was
it
with the apostles after the crucifixion

all
how
willing
were they
to
look upon
iii.
that
was
past in the mildest possible light
thus Peter, (Acts
norance ye did it;"
how
17,) "
And now,
!
brethren,
wot that through
ig-
did they refuse to dwell
upon the past
sin,
urging rather the present grace
But the servants upon

first.
this
second mission fare worse than upon the

the reiterated invitation,
The
Nor
guests,
when they heard

ways, one
worst.
"made
light
of it, and
is
luent their
to his
farm, another
to his
merchan-
dise."
this the
The
it,
careless disregard of the honour
vouchsafed, which appeared from the beginning, and has grown in some
to this
contemptuous rejection of
has ripened in others
to
an absolute
hostility against the bringers of the

.servants,
message
" The remnant took his
and entreated them
spitefully,
and slew them."
So there are
:
some whc^ ever in the world two kinds of despisers of the Gospel of God " take the trouble perhaps of saying, " I pray thee have me excused
others in
first
whom
it
excites feelings of a positive enmity.

;
Those
in the
class are again subdivided

to his farm,
for
it is
said that
they " went their
The question natuanother to his merchandise." Can we make a distinction here? did the Lord intend a distinction ? Perhaps if we understand of the first as one who went to his estate, which the word will perfectly justify, the distinction will come more clearly out. The first is the landed proprietor, the second the
ways, one
rally ai'ises.
merchant
the
first
would acquire what as yet
would enjoy what he already possesses, the second Exactly so, is his only in anticipation.
Luke
xiv. 18, 19, the guest

it,
who has bought
a property and must needs

first
go and see
is
one who has entered into the
condition
to the
the guest
who would
fain try his five
yoke of oxen, belongs
second.
The
dangers of having and of getting, though cognate, are yet not
at all the
* "
My oxen
and my failings are
killed."
nearness of the
feast.
Cbardin {Voy. en Perse, w. 4,

le soir
This would be a sign of the immediate On tue le matin le moup. 48)

:
ton et I'agneau qu'on mangera

chair est la plus fralche tuee.
Les Persans croient que

xviii. 7,
la
meilleure
(See Gen.
xliii.
16
Prov.
ix.
1-5.)
378
same.

There
is
SON.
to
quite difference
enough between them
account for
the distinction.
One of the guests when urged to come, turned to that which by his own or others' labour he had got another to what he was hoping to get.* They are either those who are full, or are hoping to be full of this world; and the woe which the Lord pronounced, Luke vi. for this fulness has prevented them from dis25, has come upon them
covering their emptiness of things heavenly
the divine hunger, the
hunger and
thirst after righteousness,
has never been awakened in their
souls. But " the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.'^ The oppositions to the Gospel are not merely natural,
they are also devilish.

worldliness of
it,
There are other

stirred
evils in
man's heart besides the

truth.
It
which are
it
up by the word of the

itself.
wounds men's
pride,
it
affronts their self-righteousness,
and they
visit
on the bringers of
the hate they bear to

;
Three forms of
out-
rage are enumerated here

Apostles, and
and how abundantly do the Acts of the
much They
xxi.
else in the later Scriptures, bear out all the three.
They
18;
"
took,'"
or laid violent hands on, "
viii.
3.)
Ms servants." (Acts iv. 3 ; v. "entreated them spitefully ;" (Acts v. 40 ; xivi 5,

xxiii.
19;
xii.
xvii.
5;
30;
2;) they
^^
slew
them"
(Acts
vii.
58;
cf.
Matt, xxiii. 34. )t

as in every case
him, and was intended for him
The insult was to where an ambassador is outraged, it is his master whom it is intended that the blow shall reach. (2 Sam. X.) .As such it was avenged; for the king " sent forth his armies," that is, as some say, his avenging angels, the armies in heaven,
;
" But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth."
(Rev. xix. 14,) the legions that are at his bidding.

Kin. xxii. 19
;
(Matt. xxvi. 53
2 Sam. xxiv.
16,):j: or,
it
may
be, the hosts of
Rome,
* Bengel
who
is
gifted with such
wonderful
skill,
rem tangere acu, brings out the

same explanation
difference exactly so: Alius per falsam airapKciav, alius per cupiditatem acquirendi detentus.
And Gerhard
c.
suggests, though with no great confidence, the

:
(Harm. Evang.,
153)
Quid
si
;
per abeuntes ad negotiationem intelligamus eos qui
inhiant opibus adhuc acquirendis
per abeuntes ad villam, qui male delectantur in opi-
bus jam ante partis et acquisitis

t
To
this part
of the parable, 2 Chron. xxx. 10 supplies an interesting parallel.

at Jerusalem, he sent
When
/
Hezekiah restored the worship of Jehovah

all
messengers
throughout
the tribes, inviting all Israel to share in the
solemn passover which he
J
'
was about
to city
. .
to
.
keep, that
is,
bidding them to the
feast.
but they laughed them to scorn and

this
" So the posts passed from city mocked them." Yet as guests were
brought in to the marriage-supper, so in
case, also,
" divers humbled themselves
and came
t
to
Jerusalem."
:
Gregory the Great (Horn. 38 in Evang.)

nisi exercitus
Quid namque sunt
ilia
Angelorum
agmina,
^
Regis nostri
So
IrensBus, Con.
Har.,
1.
4, c. 36, 6.

(Dan.
ix. 26,)
SON.
179
even ungodly
which were equally "

of God's hand, by
Isai. x. 5,
his armies,''^ since
men
are
men
whom
;
he executes vengeance on other

the rod of ??ime anger."
9,
wicked.
(Thus
5
;
"
O Assyrian,
41
Jer.
Thus
too, Isai. xiii.
Ezek.
xvi.
xxv.
" Nebuchadnezzar,
my
servant.")
In fact, the two explanations flow one into the other, for
is to
when
to-
God's wrath
gether.
be executed, the earthly and visible ministers of his
judgments and the unseen armies of heaven are evermore leagued
The
natural eye sees only those, the spiritual eye beholds the
It is
other also behind.

old.
ever
at
such moments as
multitude, to
it
was with
Israel of
(1 Chron. xxi. 16.)
The
his
whom
the purged spiritual

pesti-
eye was wanting, beheld only the outward calamity, the wasting
lence, but
David
lifted
up
eye and saw the angel of the Lord, stand-
ing between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand.* " The city of those murderers^' can of course be no other than Jerusalem,
the central point of the Jewish theocracy. (Matt, xxiii. 34, 35
xiii.
;
Luke
There lies an awful threat in this appellation. It is their city, not any longer the city of the great King, who owns it no more for his own. With a similar threatening Christ says, " Your house is left unto you desolate ;" (Matt, xxiii. 38 ;)
33,
34
Acts
vii.
39
xii. 2,
3.)
to
" your house," not mine, for I no longer fill it with my presence. So Moses God says, " Thy people have corrupted themselves ;" (Exod.
xxxii. 7;) " thy people," not
mine; for the covenant between him and them was suspended by their sin. " Then" (compare Acts xiii. 46) " saith he to his servants, The wedis
ding
ready, but they which were hidden were not worthy."
Their unnot in their
worthiness consisted in their rejection of the invitation, even as the worthiness of those
who did
find a place at the festival consisted
previous
state, for in that
regard they were most unworthy of the honour
of sitting down at the king's table, but in their acceptance of the invitation.
"
Go
ye therefore into the highways,] and as
many as ye
shall
* Even the heathen could understand

describes
this.
When Troy was
perishing, the poet
how
;
the multitude
saw but
his
their
Grecian enemies engaged in the work of

his
destruction
but to Eneas,
;
when
Goddess mother had opened

inimicaque Trojae
eyes, there ap-
peared other foes
to
him
Apparent
dirae facies,
Numina magna
gives both meanings,
DeClm.
6tcô6ot are transitus or exitus, (Passow Durchgang and Ausgang :) whether the thoroughfares, (see Ps. i. 3,LXX., where the word is used for channels of waters,) or the outlets leading from the city, (Grotius Viae extra urbem ducentes,) or such as issued into its places and squares, (Kuinoel Gompita viarum,) or the points where many roads or streets meet Chrysostom (Horn. 69 in Matth.,) more than once substitutes rpUiov;. (Schleusner:
: :
t It seems hard to determine whether these
(Loca ubi plures
platae
concurrunt.)
All these places have an equal fitness, in regard
180
SON.
find, hid to the marriage."
Here the doctrine so hateful to Jewish ears, (See Acts xxii. 21, 22,) the calling of the Gentiles, and that by occasion of the disobedience of the Jews, is again plainly declared. By the
olive, there
breaking off of the natural branches of the
shall be
room
made
Paul
for the grafting in of the wild olive in their stead,
(Rom.
xi.)
so
sets forth
the
same
truth
which here
his
Lord declares under the
would
image of the exclusion of the guests, who in the natural order of things best become the wedding, and were invited to it, and the reception
of those gathered in from the highways in their stead. Compare Matt. viii. 10-12, of which this parable is only the ampler unfolding.
Hereupon
gether all as
the servants " went out into the highivays,
and gathered
to-
many as they found, both had 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 and Paul declared unto the men of Athens how God now commanded " all men everywhere to repent." When it is said they ga; ;
thered in " had" as well as "good,"
in
which words there
is
a passing
over from the thing signifying

ties
to the
thing signified, since moral qualiguests as such,
would scarcely be attributed
to the
we are
not to
see here an explanation of the fact that one should hereafter be found at
the festival without a
wedding garment
heve
is
it is
not to prepare the
way
for
and
to
account
"
for that fact, that these different qualities of the guests are
mentioned.
Bad"
;
not equivalent Xo " not having a
wedding
garment" there
for here the
on the contrary,
many were
" had"
through accepting the invitation, passed into the
when invited, who, number of the "good;"
beautiful words of Augustine, concerning Christ's love to
,his Church, find their application, " he loved her
when
she was foul, that
he might make her fair."* Neither may the terms " had and good," and least of all the latter, be pressed too far ; for speaking with strict accuracy, none are good till they have been incorporated into the body
of Christ and are sharers in his Spirit.
Yet, at the same time, few will
of being places of resort, where the servants might hope soon to gather a company.
But we must not permit the English expression, " highways,"

sent
the
to
make
us think of
places in the country as contradistinguished from the town, whither the servants were
;
image throughout
the parable
is
of a city, in which the rich and great and
noble, those
who
naturally would be selected for a king's guests, refuse to

it.
come
to his
banquet, whereupon the poor of the same city are brought in to share
* Fcedam amavit ut pulcram faceret,
thought which he pursues at length else:
where
{in 1
Ep. Joh. Tract.,
9,)
among
other things saying

nisi
Amavit nos
prior qui
sem-
per est pulcher.
Et quales amavit,
foedos et deformes?
foedos dimitteret, sed ut mutaret et ex deformibus pulchros
Non ideo tamen ut Quomodo erimus faceret.

te
pulchri?
amando eum
qui
semper
est pulcher.
Quantiim
in
crescit
amor,
tantiini
crescit pulchritudo, quia ipsa charitas est animae pulchritudo.
THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON.

deny
that there are different degrees of moral
life,
Igl
to obe-
even anterior
dience to the call of the Gospel.

as Cornelius, or those
There are "good" such, for instance, Gentiles that were a law to themselves (Rom. ii.
;
14;)
and "
had,'" those
who
are so far gone in moral depravity, that to
men
there seems no hope of restoration for

to the
them
;*
" such were some
of you," says the apostle

the worst classes.
Corinthians, after enumerating sinners of
The Gospel
within
its
ample
folds both
of Christ is the draw-net which brings them who have been before honestly striving
after a righteousness according to the law,
and those who have been
ut-
terly dead in trespasses

;
some of both classes " The wedding was furnished with guests " accept This, which was the conclusion of the other and earlier spoken parable, (Luke xiv. 16,) is only the first act in the present. There is still another solemn act of judgment to follow. Hitherto the parable, with all the prophetic hints and glimpses which it gives of the wickedness of men
and
sins.
Its
invitation
and judgments of God, has been addressed

risees
it
;
to the chief priests

it
and Pha-
or generally to the Jewish nation, in so far as

It is
cared not or as
for
hated to hear the glad tidings of salvation.
now
those
who
have accepted their portion therein, with an earnest warning also for them. Besides the separation between those who come and those
who
the not
;
refuse actual
to
come,
it
shall
be
also
tried at
the last
who- amonoand who
comers have walked worthy of

to this rule there shall
their vocation
and according
be a second sifting and sepafoe

:
ration.
We
is
have had the judgment on the avowed
that on the false
friend
yet to find place.

it
But however
the
was
the servants'
work
to
gather in the guests to
heavenly banquet,
it is
not their office here,
any more than

indeed
in the
parable of the Tares, to separate finally and decisively between the wor-
thy partakers and the unworthy intruders.

be
?
And
how should
it
garment which distinguishes these from those is worn, not on the body, but on the heart :f and only " the Lord trieth the hearts."
for the
* Jerome, on these " had and good

infinita,
:"
Inter ipsos quoque Ethnicos est diversitas

vitia et ruentes
quum sciamus
alios esse proclives
ad
ad mala,
alios
ob honest-
atem morum
virtutibus deditos.
Augustine's conflict with the Pelagians would have
hindered him from expressing himself exactly in these last words, 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
all
to
baptism without having faithfully renounced, as far as

past ungodliness
the sowers
7, c.
;
human
eye could see,
their
for that
were
to
make
et
the servants of the householder themselves
of the tares.
:
(De Fide
Oper.,
c.
17.)
Ambrose {Exp.
in
Luc,
1.
202)
Jubet bonos et malos introire ut bonos augeat, malorum affectum in

:
m^liora commutet
pascentur.
ut compleretur illud
quod lectum
est
Tunc
lupi
et
agni simul
t Augustine
Vestis quippe
ilia in
corde,non in came, inspiciebatur.
182
THE MARRIAGE OP THE

may presume
that
it
KING'S SON.
We
all
pertained to the dignity of the king, that he

till
should not appear at the festival
all
were assembled, nor indeed

banquet
;
till
had now occupied their places
at the
for
so
much
is
im-
word by which now the guests are described.* But then, when he " came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment." Among the guests, ranged in order and splendidplied in the
ly apparelled, his eye at once detected one
who lacked
the apparel that
became a guest admitted

plain
to
a royal festival.
it
Him
he addresses, as yet
with a gentle compellation, for
was yet
;
to be
seen whether he could ex" he was speech-
away
his apparent
contempt
?''
" Friend, hoio earnest thou in hither,
not having^ a wedding garment

less:'
But he could not

that
But why could he not answer

be furnished with such
it
was unreasonable
to
expect of
him, brought in of a sudden and without notice from the highways, to
to
that he
was
too poor to provide,

fetch,
had been allowed him

willing to get rid of
go home and
such
or that no time
?
a garment
Some,
any semblance of harshness in the after conduct of the king, maintain that it was customary in the East, when kings or
great personages
made an
this
entertainment, that costly dresses should be
Such a custom, they say, is here tacitly now appeared not having and such a garment, because he had rejected it when offered to him had thus both despised the grace done to him in the gift, and had also by that rejection plainly declared that he counted his ordinary workto the guests.
by them presented
assumed, so that
guest could only have
day apparel, soiled and stained as it may probably have been, sufficiently good in which to appear in the presence of the king, being guilty thus
of a twofold offence. Ernesti, however, and others, have denied that any certain traces of such a custom are anywhere to be found, affirming that the only notice which we have of anything like it, is the mod-
* To5j aiuKtinivovi.
the meat.
In the Vulgate, Biscumbentes
Wiclif,
The men
sitting at
t
tion,
We
may
is
observe that
jif)
it is
the subjective,
oi
and not the

hivâ
;"
objective, particle of nega-
which
here used,
and not
îj
e'xuv
ycjiov,
" not having (and
knowit
ing that thou hadst not) the wedding garment
with a consciousness that
was
wanting.
The
is
i'fSvua yaiwv is
not exactly the lixdnov wii^tKdv of Plutarch, (Amator.

guests, but of the bridegroom
is
;
10), for that

iaOfis vvfjKptKTi
the garment not of the

p. 6,
lie
nor yet the

v.
of Chariton, 1,
which
that of the bride.

this phrase,
(Becker's Charikles,
2, p. 467.)
Yet
there
may
under the use of
which seems
at
first fitter
to set forth the array of the
bridegroom than that of the invited guests, that the true

at the spiritual marriage is
it
;
adornment of each of these

bridegroom
:
identical with that of the
from him they have
it is
of the same kind as that which he wears

;
himself; for they
who
are rightly arrayed have put on the Lord Jesus Christ
and ^s
he
is,
so are they in the world.
SON.
183
ern custom of clothing with a caftan those that are admitted into the
presence of the Sultan.

But, while
often
tinct
it
must be acknowledged
proof, fails to prove
that the passage (Judg. xiv. 13)

:
adduced in
evidence
is
not forthcoming of
and that, perhaps, disany such practice as that assumed,

anything
yet
we know enough
of the undoubted customs of the East to

that
make
it
extremely probable
presents of dresses
were
often distributed
among
ers, to
the guests at a marriage festival, especially one like the present,
celebrated with great
pomp and magnificence

must have been
so that our Lord's hearfamiliar,
whom
gift
those customs
would have un-
consciously supplied the gap in the narration, and taken for granted
such a
going before, especially
when they found
so severe a pen-
alty inflicted
upon
this guest, for a
well have avoided.

state
We
know
in
want which otherwise he could not the first place, that it was part of the
to
and magnificence of kings and wealthy persons in the East,
have
great store of costly dresses laid up, as at the present day a great portion
of their wealth
costly apparel.
is
very commonly invested

;
in
numerous changes of
v.
(Job xxviii. 16
Isai.
iii.
Jam.
2 Kin.
x. 22.)*
Keeping
this in
mind,
we need
not suppose that the
number of
guests,
however
great,
moreover that
would have created any embarrassment. We know costly dresses were often given as honourable presents,
22
;
marks of
Dan.
V.
especial favour, (Gen. xlv.

;
Sam.
xviii.
2 Kin.
as
v.
Est. vi. 8
1
;
Mace.
x.
20
the most customary gifts
and marriage
vi.
;) that
they were
then,
ii.
now,
festivals (Est.
18) and other
occasions of festal rejoicing (2 Sam.
19) were naturally those upon

If the gift took the that
it
which
gifts
were distributed with the largest hand.

it
form of costly raiment,

be worn
would reasonably be expected
should
at once, as part
of the purpose of the distribution would else
be
lost,
which was
to
to testify to the
openly the magnificence and liberality of the

splendour and glory of the
festal time,
giver,
and also
add
not
to say that the rejection of a gift, or the

it,
is
appearance of a slight put upon ever naturally esteemed as a slight and contempt not of that gift
only, but also of the giver.
The
story told by
Horace of the
five
thousand mantles which Lucullus, on exis
amining
his wardrobe, found that

v. 3, p.
he possessed,
well
known
and
this extract
all later
from
Chardin {Voy. en Perse,

rers into Eastern
230, Langles' ed.) a traveller of
whom
inqui-
customs join in praising the accuracy and extent of information,
may
be accepted in proof that the number of the garments needed would have been readily
at
hand
On
ne sauroit croire
la
depense que
fait le roi
de Perse pour ces presens-la.

tient toujours ses garde-robes
Le nombre des
pleines.
habits qu'il donne
est infini.
On
en
On
les tient
dans
les
magazins s6pares par assortiment.
So strongly
is this felt,
that
we
are not without example in the
modern
history of
184
But

may
SON.
it
in addition to the affront of rejecting the gift, supposing

gift
to be
granted that such a
going before
be safely assumed, this guest
was
guilty of a further affront in appearing at the festival in unsuitable,
probably in mean and sordid, apparel.

sions
Even with us
there are occa-
when such conduct would be felt as manifesting a serious much more among the nations of antiquity, especially respect
;
lack of
those of
the East,
where outward symbols have a
significance so far greater than
with us, would such an omission as that whereof this guest was guilty, be
felt
as a grievous affront and insult*
to the
person in whose honour
the East, (and Eastern
manners so
having
little
change that modern examples are nearly as

through
this
good as ancient,) of a
vizier
lost his life,
very failing to wear a gar;
the ment of honour sent to him by the king. Chardin mentions the circumstances officer through whose hands the royal robe was to be forwarded, out of spite sent in its The vizier would not appear in the city arrayed in this, lest it stead a plain habit. should be taken as an evidence that he was in disgrace at court, and put on in its stead a
royal habit, the gift of the late king, and in that
made
his public entry into the city.
When
this
was known
at court, they declared the vizier a dog, that

I
he had disdainfully Their

life.
thrown away the royal apparel, saying,

account incensed the king,
have no need of Sha

the affront,
Sefi's habits.
who
severely
felt
and
it
cost the vizier his
(Burder's Orient. Liter.,

the
v. I, p.
94.
Cf. Herodotus,
gift
1.
9, c. Ill, for
an example of
manner
in
which the rejecting a monarch's
was
resented.)
Olearius {Trahe accompanied,

It
vels, p. 214,) gives
an account of himself, with the ambassadors
whom
being invited to the table of the Persian king.

the
He
goes on to say, "
was
told us
by
mehmandar,
that
we
according to their usage must hang the splendid vests that

dresses,
were sent us from the king over our

bassadors at
first
and so appear
it
in his presence.
The am-
refused
but the
mehmandar urged
so earnestly, alleging, as also

all
did others, that the omission would greatly displease the king, since
other envoys
observed such a custom, that at
last
they consented, and hanged, as did
we
also, the
splendid vests over their shoulders, and so the cavalcade proceeded."

sides its value as
failing to
This passage, be-
showing us how the

it,
rejection of the
garment of honour, or rather the
appear in
would be
felt
as an insult, clears
away any
difficulty
which
might have occurred

for
any from the apparent unfitness of the king's palace as a place changing of apparel. In fact, there was strictly speaking no such changing of apto
parel, for the
garment of honour was either a vest drawn over the other garments, or
Schulz, in his Travels, describes that given to him, as
a mantle hung on the shoulders.
"a
long robe with loose sleeves, which hang

is
down
(for the
arm
is
not put into them),
the white ground of which
goat's hair,
mixed with some
silver, but the flowers

it
woven
in are of gold-coloured silk
;"
and
his
account of the necessity of putting
on before
traveller.
appearing in the presence of the Sultan, agrees with that given by the earlier
(Rosenmuller's Alte und Neue Morgenl.,
v. 5, p. 76.)
Irenaeus then has exactly seized the right point 6):
when he
est,
says, {Con. Hcer.,
1.
4, c. 36,
Eum, qui non
habet indumentum, nuptiarum hoc
contemptorem. Compare with
this the
exceeding stress which Cicero lays, in his charges against Vatinius, {In Vatin.,
12, 13,) on the fact of the latter having once appeared clad in black at a great
and
in
it,
solemn
festival (supplicatio)
how much of wanton

feast,
indignity and insult he
saw
both toward the giver of the
and
also
toward the other guests.
"
Who ever,"
he

the
SON.
185
and, of course, the

the offence.
more splendid and becoming apparel ought to have been put on more honourable the person the more serious would be
So
that,
though others have been forward
to
say something
in this guest's behalf,
as
that he could not help appearing as he did, or
that his fault
was
after all but a slight one,
he
did not feel that he
had
anything to say
for
himself; " he teas speechless,'' or literally, his mouth

to allege for his
was
stopped, he
was gagged,* with no plea
contemptu-
ous behaviour; he stood self-condemned, and judgment therefore imme" Then said the king to the servants," diately proceeded against him.
or rather to the ministering attendants, "
take
him away, and cast him
into outer
darkness."
Bind him hand and foot, and Within the palace
into this the was light and joy, but without it was cold and darkness unworthy guest, with no power of resisting the fulfilment of the decree, and there for for his hands and feet were first bound, was to be cast
;
him, under the sense of his shame, and loss and exclusion from the glorious festival,
This brings the parable
much in this it may first be

guests
?
would be "weeping and gnashing of teeth." to an end according to the letter, yet latter part which demands an accurate inquiry.
asked, does the king
is
there
When,
come
in to see, or to scrutinize, the
Not certainly
exclusively in the
day of
final
judgment, though
indeed most signally then.
At every other judgment whereby hypoto
crites are revealed, or self deceivers laid bare to themselves or to others,
the king enters in to see, or rather, diligently
regard, f the assembled

its
guests
:}:
at
every time of
trial,
which
is
also in
nature a time of sep-
asks, " even in a time of domestic grief apreared at a supper thus arrayed in black ?"
and
we
learn from that passage, as from
many
for
v. 2, p.
others, that
none but white garments,

the
which, however, would afford great room

for a festival.
magnificence, were considered becoming

469.)
It
(See Becker's Charikles,
was
same among
;
the
Hebrews,
for
one exhorting
to continual
merriment and
ix. 8,) that
is,
festal
gladness exclaims, " Let
thy garments be always white," (Eccles.
keep a continual feast

vi.
so we
read that tohite robes were given to the souls under the altar, (Rev.
11,) a pledge to
them, that though kept waiting a while, they should yet in a

to the marriage-supper of the
little
season be admitted
Lamb and
;
the bride
is
arrayed in fine linen, clean and
white. (Rev. xix. 8.)
'E<ptfjiw9n,
from
(jyijxds
tTrioroîoi/,
a gag.
Chrysostom admirably explains
it,
Kar-
tKptvev cavTuv.
Such gags,
for
(in
Latin, camus,) were actually in use, not merely for
beasts, but
sometimes
rebellious slaves, or criminals

1, p.
(See Schoettgen's Hor. Heb., v.
241, and the
on their way to execution. Param. Gmci, Oxf 1G36, p. 41.)

Fixis ac intentis oculis as-
The word
is
used in
its literal
is
+ Qcaofxai, which
picio et intueor
the
sense, 1 Tim. v. 18. word here, Schleusner explains
ad rem aliquam considerandam

:
et dijudicandam.
In the Vulgate,
Ut
videret discumbentes
t
the old Italic
had
better,
Ut
inspiceret discumbentes.
:
Augustine
Intrat
Deus
judicio, qui foris
manet tolerando
and the Auct. Oper.
13
186
aration,

a time
for the
SON.
are laid
final
when
the thoughts of
last
many
hearts
bare
though
day of the
judgment the complete and

all that
separa-
tion is of course reserved, in
and then
has been partially fulfilling
one and another will be completely
fulfilled in all.
Some would
the
not leave out of sight the singleness of the guest without
wedding garment, but seek to hold it fast in the interpretation. They have suggested that Judas may perhaps be immediately pointed
out.*
It is
certainly not impossible that a gracious Lord,
who
suffers
none
for
to perish
without warning,
may have meant
a merciful warning
him here.
This, at any rate, were a more tolerable supposition

others, f of the historico-prophet-
than that of Vitringa, Cocceius, and

ical school, to wit, that
it is
the
man
of
sin,
by
whom
:
they understand
is in-
the Pope.
It is
hardly, however, probable that any single person
" for the "/ezo tended, but rather under this one a great multitude presently said to be " cJwsen" in comparison to the " many called^'
would seem
to
imply that there had been a great
sifting.
Why
these
many
excluded should be here represented as a single person has been
explained in different ways.
Townson
instances
it
as an
example of
what he happily
servant
calls
;
our Lord's parables
"the lenity of supposition,^' which finds place in as he instances in like manner there being but one
who
failed to turn his lord's
money
to
account.
Gerhard gives
an ingenious reason,
that " if
many had been
thrust out from the marto
riage, the nuptial festivities
would have seemed

to
have been disturbed."
^'
But he
will
is
on a truer track, when he observes how the fact of his being
but one, brings the matter
home
every
be the future scrutiny, that not so
man much
" So diligent and exact

as one in
all
that great
multitude of men, shall on the last day escape the piercing eyes of the
Judge.":]:
Nor
is
there
any
difficulty in thus
contemplating the whole
Imperf.
Tunc regem
ingredi,
quando Deus tentat homines, ut appareat quantum

sit.
quis-
que virtutis habeat,et an loco, quern in Ecclesia tenet, dignus
* Thus Pseudo-Athanasius, (De Farab. Script.,) and in later times Weisse. (Evatig.
Gesch.,v. 2,
t
p.
114.)
As GuRTLEK, Syst. Theol. Proph., p. 676. He finds a confirmation of this view Antichristus singulariler est Irarpoj, viin the fact, that the man is addressed as haXpc The Jews have a carium iliius se venditans, et solio ejus solium nequitiae associans curious tradition about Esau, who is their standing type of Antichrist, that he will be
:
!
such a guest thrust out from the kingdom of God.
It is
found in the Jerusalem Talsit
mud, and
is
as follows
" Esau the wicked will veil himself with his mantle, and
among
the righteous in Paradise in the world to
come
and the holy blessed God
will
draw him and bring him out from thence, which is the sense of those words, Obad. 4, 6." t Cajetan the same Subtilis discretio in tanta multitudine describitur quia enim
:
ita
omnes Deus visus homo.
videt ut singulorum singillatim curara habeat, ide6
unus describitur

multitude of evil-doers as a single person.
SON.
187
For as the righteous are one,

is
being gathered under their one head, which

tion of the
Christ, so the congrega-
wicked are one, being gathered also under their one head,
Satan.
which
is
The
mystical Babylon
is
one city no less than the

as well as a
mystical Jerusalem.
There
is
kingdom of darkness
itself, it
kingdom of God.*
But concerning the wedding garment
It is
has been abundantly

lacking in
this.
disputed what spiritual grace or gift he lacked,

well
who was
known
that the
Romanists have been eager

assert that
to press this
pas-
sage into their service, in the controversy concerning the relative value
of faith and charity.
ity in
faith,
But when they
it
must have been char-
which
this
guest was deficient, and not
faith,
for that
all
he had
since he would not have been present at the feast at
unless ex-
ternally
a believer, they are merely taking advantage of the double

faith,
meaning of the word

bare assent
and playing
they must
off the occasional use of
it
as a
to the truth,
against St. Paul's far deeper use of the word,for
and
this
most unfairly,
know
that
it is
only in the
latter
sense of the word that any would attribute this guest's exclusion to his
wanting
faith.
Were
it
needful to decide absolutely for one or other of

I
these interpretations of the wedding garment,
would
far sooner accept
the other, as infinitely the deepest and truest, since the slower
said to be contained in
may
be
the root, but not the
root in
t-'ie
flower,
and so
great
to
charity in
faith,
but not faith in charity ."I"
There
iS
however no need
to decide for either interpretation, so as to
exclude ihe other.
The
teachers in the early Church did not put themselves in contradiction
one another, when some of them asseited

ficient in
was
charity, and others faith
what the intruder was denay, the same writer,:}: without

that
* Augustine (Enarr. in Ps.

nescio quis
Ixi.
4)
Lcratus est de convivio et missus in poenas
tendere
homo in tam magna turba recumbentium. unum ilium hominem, unum corpus esse quod
.
.
.
Sed tamen Dominus volens

constat ex multis, ubi jussit
os-
eum
projici foras, et mitti in debitas poenas, subjecit continuo,
Multi enim sunt vocati, pauci

Projecto uno, electi remanse-
vero electi
runt.
Qui sunt
electi, nisi qui
remanserant?
Quomodo,
projecto
c.
uno de multis, pauci
electi nisi in illo
uno multi?
See also
Con. Don., post Coll.,

the whole
20.
We
have
just the reverse of this, 1 Cor. ix. 24.
There
number of the elect are included in the " one that t Ignatius {Ad Ephes., 14) calls the twain, dp'xh ôifjs kuI
ayULTTr).
receiveth the prize."

tcXoj
apxh
fîv Tîarts,
H-
Xoj it
X
Thus Ambrose {De Fide,

1.
1.
4, c. 1) speaks of the nuptiale fidei
vestimentum
while elsewhere {Be Fcenit.,

nuptialem, hoc
est,
1, c. 6)
he says
lUe rejicitur qui non habet vestera

;
amictum
caritatis,
velamen
gratias
and
again uniting his two
former expositions (a:p. in
Luc, I. 7, c. 204): Vestem nuptialem, hoc est, fidem et In the same way Augustine {Ser7n. xc.) joins them both: Habete fidem caritatem. cum dilectione. Ista est vestis nuptialis. The Auct. Oper. Imperf. : Nuptiale vesti-
188

was aught needing
to
SON.
feeling that there
be reconciled, would in one
place give the one interpretation, and elsewhere the other.

this
For what
and
its
guest lacked was righteousness, both in
its
root of faith
flow-
er of charity.
He had
not,
here peculiarly appropriate,
" put on
according
to
the pregnant image of Paul,
Christ;"
of Christ, both faith and charity are included,
in
which putting on
faith as the
power put-
ting on, charity or holiness as the thing put on.*
By
faith
is
we
recog-
nize a righteousness out of and above us, and which yet
akin to us,
is in
and wherewith our

Christ,
spirits
can be clothed, which righteousness
who
is
the
Lord our Righteousness.

so that
And
this righteousness
by
the appropriative and assimilative power of faith
we
also
make ours
we
are clothed upon with
it,
it
becomes, in that singularly ex-
pressive term, our hahit,-\
the righteousness
imputed has become also
Jesum Christum et justitiam ejus see also Basil (on Yet no one would deny the other to be the side upon which the Fathers more frequently contemplate the wedding garment, as charity, or sanctity. Thus Irenaeus (Con. Hair., 1. 4, c. 36, 6) Qui vocati ad CEenam Dei,
est fides vera quae est per
;
mentum
Uai.
ix.) for
like
interpretation.
propter
malam conversationem non perceperunt Spiritum Sanctum
and Hilary: Ves-
titus nuptia'iis est gloria SpiritCls
Sancti et candor habitus coelestis, qui bonae interroga-
tionis confessione
susceptus usque in caetum regni ccelorum immaculatus et integer

the Great, Horn.
reservatur.
So Gregory
:
38
in
Evang.
Yet Grotius
affirms too
much
Holy
when he
says
Ita veteres
I thii.k
magno consensu ad hunc locum.

it
And
this is the
predomi-
nant, though not
the exclusive, sense given to
in our Exhortation to the
Communion
ham.
with which compare Chrysostom, Horn. 3, in Ephes., quoted by Bingc.
(Christ. Anit., b. 15,
4, 2.)
I
* Even so Gerhard, to wlnse most useful collection of passages
have been very
much
indebted in this parable, explains

Christuvr.
it
Vestis nuptialis Christus est, qui et sponsus

ejus
et cibus est in his nuptiis.
autem induimus tum fide

ipsius justitia
meritum apprehend-
endo, ut nuditas nostra coram Dei
ju(]'.cio
tanquam
pretiosa veste tegatur,
tum sancta vita conversatione, qua, ipbius vestigiis insistimus, (Rom. xiii. 14,) ciim and Christus non solum nobis datus sit in donutn, sed etiam propositus in exemplum Vestem tiuptialem, hoc est, vestem superccelestis Jerome's words are remarkable
;
hominis,
as he explains the sordid garment

sees in his vision
as veteris
hominis exuvias.
One might
I.
here bring forward as illustrative a passage from vê Shepherd of Hermas,

c.
3, sim. 9,
13.
He
some
virgins,
and asks who they are
it is
answered that
they represent the chief Christian virtues: Spiritus sancti sunt, non aliter enim
potest in
homo
regnum Dei
intrare nisi hae induerint
eum
veste su^.
Etenim
eis.
its
nil proderit tibi
accipere
nomen
filii
Dei, nisi etiam et vestem earum acceperis ab
t This image runs remarkably through the whole of Scripture,
frequent use be-
ing a witness for

Christ,
its
peculiar fitness.
Thus we
are bidden to put on the Lord Jesus
(Rom.
baptism
xiii.
14,) to put off the old, to put
on the new, man, (Col.
iii.
10
;
Ephes.
Thess.
iv. 22,) to
put on the various pieces of the panoply of

is
God
27.)
(Ephes.
vi.
13-16
V.
;)
a putting on of Christ. (Gal.
iii.
See
further,
Rom.
xiii.
12
Ezek.
xvi.
10
Isai. Ixi.
10
Sirac. vi. 31
and Schoettgen, (Hot. Heb.,
v. 1, p. 699,)
shows
that the mystery of putting on a righteousness from above
was not wholly
hid-
den from
the
Jews
many of
the
passages which he quotes being truly remarkable.

a righteousness infused, and
rately
in the
still, is in
SON.
X89
accu-
us charity or holiness, or more

all
constitutes the
complex of
Christian graces as they abide
man and show themselves in his life. The wedding garment then is righteousness in whole adornment of the new and spiritual man,
it is
its
largest sense, the
including
the faith
without which
impossible to please God, and the holiness without
which no man
shall see
:
him,
it is
or,
like this guest, shall only see

is
him
to
perish at his presence
the faith which

it
the root of all graces,
the mother of all virtues, and
is
likewise those graces and those virthis
tues themselves.
son,
Let us contemplate
guest as a self-righteous per-
who
is
making and
trusting in a righteousness of his own, instead
of believing in a righteousness of Christ's, imputed and imparted,

let
or
us see in him a more ordinary sinner,
who
with the Christian pro-
fession
liness
and privileges and

sin,
is
yet walking after the lusts of the flesh in unho-
in either case the
image holds good

spirit,
he
he
is
rejecting
something, even the true robe of his

to
which has been freely given

let go,
;
him
at his baptism,*
and which
freely at
if
he has since
may
yet,
on
the strength of that
any moment claim he is a despiser, counting himself good enough merely as he is in himself, in the flesh and not in the spirit, to appear in the presence of God. But a time argift,
rives
when every man

it
will discover that

It is
he needs another covering, anlike this guest only
other array for his soul.

discovers
woe unto him, who

all his
when
was
it
is
too late to
to
provide himself with such; and then
suddenly stands confessed

filement.
It
himself in
moral nakedness and de-
the king's
so
it
will be the light
word which struck the intruder speechless of God shining round and shining in upon the
day reveal
to
sinner,
which
will at the last
his heart, all that evil, of the greater part of
him all the hidden things of which he has hitherto wiU
fully chosen to be ignorant, but of
which now he can remain ignorant
no longer.
We
may
well understand
guest, will be speechless, that
how he also, like the unworthy however forward he may have been in
;
other times to justify himself, in that day his mouth will be stopped
will not even pretend to offer
he
any excuse, or
to
plead any reason
why
judgment should not proceed against him
at once.
The
The
5
ministering attendants here,
who
are different both in
name and
figure has passed
on
to the
heavenly kingdom
as grace
is
put on here, so glory

iii.
there.
;
"
He
vi.
that overcometh, the

;
same
shall be clothed in
white raiment." (Rev.
iv.
11
vii.
2 Esd.
ii.
39, 45.) In the book of
Enoch
these garments are called
vestes
vitae.
See Eisenmenger's Entd. Judenthum,
(v. 2, p.
310,) where
it is
said of
the angels, that according to the Jewish tradition they strip off the giave-clothes from
every one
*
who enters Paradise, and clothe him in white and glistering raiment. See one of Schleiermacher's Taufreden, in his Predigten, v. 4, p. 787.
190
office
THE MARRIAGE OF THE
KING'S SON.
from the servants who invited and brought in the guests,* can be no other than the angels who " shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend,
xix. 24.)
some
by
is
and them that do iniquity." (Matt. xiii. 41, 49 Luke These are bidden to "hind Mm hand and foot," which by made to mean that upon the sinner the night is come, in which
;
no man can work, that

;
for
him
all
opportunity of doing better

it
is
gone
though
in a
should rather see in
the sign of the helplessness to
which
moment every proud
striver against
feet
God
all
is
reduced. f
The
hands by the aid of which resistance, the

(Acts xxi. 11.)
In the
by Avhose help escape,

power and motion.
is
might have been meditated, are alike deprived of
command
" Take him
away"
implied the sin-
ner's exclusion from the
ven, the
Church now glorious and triumphant in heaperfected kingdom of God.:}: (Matt. xiii. 48; 2 Thess. i. 9.)
:
Nor
is
the penalty merely privative
it
is
not only this loss of good,
but also the presence of evil,

ness ;" so called because
it
They
shall " cast
him
into outer darkto
lies
wholly beyond and external

as light
is
God's
kingdom of light and

darkness
joy.|j
For
is
contemplated as the element

that
of that kingdom, so whatever
beyond and without
kingdom
is
the " outer

all fall
darkness" girdling round the kingdom of

back,
light,
and
*
into
which
who
refusing to walk in the light of God's

(John
Those were
that
feet of
Sov\oi, these are Staxovoi.
ii.
5, 9.)
They
here appear as
lic-
tors
name, from
ligare,
having allusion to
this
very function of binding the
hands and
condemned
;
criminals.
t H. de Sto Victore
Ligatis manibus et pedibus, id est, ablata penitus potestate

:
ben^ operandi
but
rather follow Grotius

it
Notat
to
^ftaôv xal
v.
to
aipcvKTov irrogati
divinitus supplicii.
parallel.
Taking
in this
is
meaning, Zech.
8 will supply an instructive
The woman whose name

is
" Wickedness" sitting securely in the ephah,

filled, is forcibly
the great
it
;
measure of God's judgments, which she has
and the mouth of it
then stopped with the huge mass of lead, that she

(in loc.)
:
raise herself again.

.
.
.
Jerome
Angelus praecipitem misit
in
down into may never medium amphorae

thrust
ac ne forte rursum elevaret caput, et sua iniquitate et impietate gauderet, talentum

in
plumbi
modum
gravissimi lapidis mittit in os amphorae, ut Impietatem in medio oppri-
mat alque concludat,ne quo modo possit erumpere. The women with wings, who bear away the ephah, will further answer to the servants here and the outer darkness here
;
to the land
of Shinar, the profane land, whither the vessel and

vision too (v. 5-11) has
its
its
;
burden are borne.

for
The whole
sinners in
X It is
similarity to
this parable
that
and
this
speak alike of the cleansing of the Church by judgment-acts of separation upon the
it.
interesting to
compare Zeph.
i.
7,
" The Lord hath prepared a
sacrifice,
sacrifice,
he hath bid his guests.

that I will punish the
And
it
shall
come
to pass in the
day of the Lord's
princes and
the king's children, and all such as are clothed
with strange apparel."
II
(ivitivjuvovi ivHjiaTa d\\6Tpta.

c. 5.
;
LXX.)
Augustine, Serm. 31,

Peter
Lombard
(1.
4, dist. 50)
Extcriores fcnebrtc erunt, quia tunc peccatorcs

a,
penitus erunt extra Deum....Secludentur penitus
luce Dei.

truth, fail to attain in the
SON.
life.
jgi
(Compare
end
to the light
of everlasting
Wisd,
xvii.
21
xviii. 1.)
On
the words following, " There shall be
weeping and gnashing of

already.*
teeth,''
there has been occasion to say something
The parable terminates like that of the Labourers in the Vineyard with that weighty saying, " Many are called, but feto are chosen," which
refers not
merely to the expulsion of this unworthy guest ; but in the " called " and not " chosen " must be included those others also, that did
not so
much
as
seem (which he had done)
to
embrace
the invitation, and
who
city.
expiated their contumacy in the destruction of themselves and their
And
its
these words do but state a truth which had long before been
fulfilment in the
finding
kingdom of God, which,
alas
is
always
accomplishing there.
They were
fulfilled in the history
of that entire
generation which went out of Egypt
dom, yet were not
in the
they were all "called'' to a kingend " chosen " to it, since with most of them God
(1 Cor. x.
was
not well pleased, and they died in the wilderness.

iii.
1-10
Heb.
7-19
Jude 5.)
it
They were
first
fulfilled
on a smaller scale in
those twelve to
whom
was given
to see
the promised land
two
only drew strength and encouragement from that sight, and they only were " chosen " to inherit it. They found their fulfilment in the thirty
and two thousand of Gideon's army

ers in and sharers of his victory,
these
all
were "
called," but only
three hundred were found worthy, and in the end " chosen " to be help-
such a
all
sifting
and winnowing away

fulfilled too in
had there been before.

and
figure,
(Judg.
vii.)
They were
the
a type
to-
when Esther
alone of
maidens that were brought
gether to the king's palace was "chosen" by him, and found lasting
favour in his sight.
(Esth. ii.)f
Meuschen {N. T. ex Talm.
illust., p.
It is
106) quotes a Jewish parable as bearof a king
ing some resemblance to the present.

festival
:
who
invited his servants to a

at the
- some of
these prepared
and adorned themselves, and waited
door
till
he should pass
in, others said
there
would be time enough
for this, as
the feast
would
latter,
be a long while in preparing, and so went about their ordinary business.
The
to
when
the king
demanded suddenly
were obliged
to
the presence of his guests,
had no time
change
;
their apparel, but
appear before him in sordid garments as they were

to taste
this
he was
and not
displeased,
and would not allow them

the others feasted.
of his banquet, but

to
made
them stand by while

our Lord's parables,
this.
But
if
can be said
it
resemble any of
it is
evidently the
Ten
Virgins, with which
should be compared,
t H. de Sto Victore {Be Arrha Animce,) makes excellent application of Esther's

history to the matter in
scilicet quae occulis
hand
Vide quam multee
electae
sunt, ut
una
eligeretur, ilia
Regis formosior et ornatior
caeteris videretur.
MinistWRegis mulelectio multarura
tas eligunt
ad cultum.
Rex
ipse
unam
eligit
ad thalamum.
Prima
facta est,
secundum Regis praeceptionem, secunda
electio unius facta est,
secundum
192
THE TEN VIRGINS.
PARABLE
XIII.
THE TEN VIRGINS.

Matthew
xxv. 1-13.
at least as
The
circumstances of a marriage among the Jews, so far
they supply the groundwork of the present parable, are sufficiently well
known, and have been abundantly

tiquities
;
illustrated
by writers on Jewish anto
and indeed no
less
through the accounts given by modern
travellers in the East,
for the
customs alluded
hold in
full force to
the present day, and form as important
they did in ancient times.
# part of the nuptial ceremony as The bridegroom, accompanied by his friends,

ix.
("the children of the bride-chamber," Matt.

bridegroom," John
bride,
iii.
15
" the friends of the
2)
see Judg. xiv. 11,) goes to the house of the

ix.
and brings her with pomp and gladness (1 Mace. his own home, or occasionally, should that be too narrow
guests, to
37-39)
to
to receive the
companied from her
some larger apartment provided for the occasion. She is acfather's house by her young friends and companjoin the procession,
ions,* (Ps. xlv. 15,) while other of these, the virgins of the parable, at
some convenient place meet and
and enter with the
Regis voluntateni....Rex summus Regis
filius
venit in hunc
mundum (quem
ipse crea-
verat) desponsaresibi uxorem electam.uxorem unicatn,uxorem nuptiis regalibus dignam.
Sed quia hunc Judaj humilitatis forma apparentem recipere contempsit.abjecta

missi sunt ministri Regis, Apostoli videlicet, per totum
est.
Et
mundum
congregare animas,et
adducere ad civitatem Regis,

per fidem
id est,
ad Sanctam Ecclesiam....Multi ergo vocati intrant

Christi
Ecclesiam, et
et
ibi
Sacramenta
quasi quaedam unguenta et antidota
ad reparaiionem
lis
ad ornatuni animarum praeparata accipiunt.

electi,
Sed quia ore
verita-
dicitur,
Multi sunt vocati, pauci vero
non ornnes qui ad hunc cultum sunt

ii,
admissi, ad
regnum sunt
eligendi
nisi
tantum
qui
sic
student se per ista niundare
et excolere, ut ci!lm
ad Regis prajsentiam introducti fuerint, tales inveniantur, quos ipse
magis
debes.
velit eligere
quam
te
reprobare.
Vide ergo ubi posita
es, et intelliges
quid facere
Posuit enim
Sponsus tuus
in triclinio, ubi niulieres ornantur, varia
pigmenta
et diversas species dedit.cibosque regies de
mensasua ministrari tibi praecepit, quidquid ad sanitatem, quidquid ad refeclionem, quidquid ad reparandam specicm, quidquid ad augendum decorem valere potest, tribuit. Cave ergo ne ad colendam teipsam negligens
sis,
ne
in nirvissimo tuo,
cCim in conspectu sponsi hujus repraesentata fueris, indig-
na (quod aRit) ejus consoriio inveniaris.
Praepara
te, sicut
decet sponsam Regis, et
sponsam Regis
*
coelestis,
sponsam sponsi immortalis.

Pyth. 3.
The
napQcvoi iraTpai of Pindar,
THE TEN VIRGINS.

rest of the bridal
193
company
into the hall of feasting.*
Such seems
somewhat
is
to
me
the exactest account of the ceremony, though
by some the circumstances

differ-
which supply the groundwork of

ently.
the parable are given

:
They
;
describe the custom to be as follows

is
the
virgins meet
to fetch,
the bridegroom, not as he the bride

to
returning with, but as he

first
going
and accompany him
unto her home, and only after that

it
;
his
own.
But
this
supposition has everything against
besides
it
being inaccurate in
itself,
and needlessly complicating the parable, moral force

;
also
considerably weakens
its
for the
parable
is
certainly
meant to leave on our minds the impression that the joining of the bridal company, for the purpose of passing in with it to the house of feasting, was a swift and momentary thing, to be done upon the instant, and of which if the opportunity were once lost, it could not be recovered. Such would not be the case, if there were this going first for the bride, and
only then
after
a considerable pause and delay, which would have
naturally taken place at her house,

dwelling.
a leading of her
home
to
her future
that per-
Neither can
feast
it
be replied
to obviate this objection, at the
haps the nuptial

friends, for this
was celebrated
as
house of her parents and
was
much
its
contrary
to all the
customs of the Jews

se-
(see John
ii.
10,) as of the Greeks,f
and such a supposition would

:j:
riously affect the parable in
spiritual application.
The marriages
in the
East taking place of
old, as
they do now, inva-
* See Wolf's latest Journal, p. 174, in addition to the

travellers
accounts given by earlier

(Antt.
b.
and quoted by Harmer and Burder.
Bingham
some
22,
c. 4,
7,)
shows the importance which was attached among
the early Christians to the leading

legal points of
home
of the bride
so that without
it
the marriage in
view was
not considered as completed.

t See Becker's Charikles,
v. 2, p.
468, in proof that the celebration of the mar-
riage in the bridegroom's house and not in the bride's,

t
was
at least the rule.
One would
not lay any stress on the fact that some of the earliest versions read,
;"
" went forth to meet the bridegroom and the bride

versally rejected,
since this reading has been uni-
except as
it
gives an evidence of the light in which the circumstance

it
was looked
at
by some, who probably were familiar with the ceremony as

tiie
actually
took place in Palestine or

Travels in Sicily, Jjc,
neighbouring countries.
confirms the view
to the ancient
:
This extract from Hughes'

given, in so far as
(v. 2, p. 20,)
first
we can
argue back from the modern custom
"
We
went
to
view the nocturnal
procession which always accompanies the bridegroom in escorting his betrothed spouse
from the paternal roof
to that of
her future husband.
This consisted of nearly one
hundred of the
first
persons in Joannina, with a great crowd of torch-bearers, and a
band of music.
equal
After having received the lady they returned, but were joined by an
evithe
number of ladies, who paid this compliment to the bride." These " ladies" dently answer to the virgins of our parable, and they join the processsion, not till
bridegroom with his friends have received the bride at her
ing her to her
fathers' house,
and are escort-
new
abode.
194
THE TEN VIRGINS.
riably at night, hence the constant mention of lamps and torches carried
by the
friends and attendants ;* therefore

(Cf.
we
are told here that these
virgins " took their lamps."
2 Esdr. x. 2.)
These, however, do
not appear to have had the

in the
tians
which they had Greek and Roman marriages,f or even in those of the early Chrisbut were in use, partly as being actually needed, partly as addreligious significance
same
ing
to
the splendour of the scene.

is
That the virgins should be ten
in
number
not accidental
number, according
course the
first
to the
number formed a company, which a less Jewish notions, would not have done4 Of
this
question for the interpreter of the parable will be,

?
Who
are meant by these virgins
There are two mistakes
to
which the word
has given
as virgins
Christ.
rise.
:
There
it is
is first theirs,
who
thus argue, All are described
all,
therefore, belong at the inmost centre of their life unto

true,
Some,
were found unready

iii.
at the last
moment, and
all
therefore suffered loss, (1 Cor.
13,)
even a long deferring of their

gives
blessedness.
Yet the name with which the Lord has honoured

final salvation.
assurance that none were ultimately excluded from the kingdom of
heaven and the
They who
take this view of the case

it
of the foolish virgins, in general connect
with the doctrine of the

first
thousand years' reign of Christ on the earth and a
resurrection.
From
the blessedness of these they should be shut out for the unreadiat the
ness in which they were found, whether

Christ's second
hour of their death, or at
coming
they should be thus shut out because of their

that
imperfections, and the

purified
still,
much
remained
in
them unmortified and un-
which needed therefore the long and painful purging of

xviii.
* Thus, Rev.
together.
23, the
^'Zs
Xi^^vov
and the
tpuvl] iivft(piov Koi
vvii^ri;
are joined
Among
;
the
Greeks and Romnns torches were

?
in chiefest use.
Epitkal., 98:
Viden'
faces
:
Aureas quatiunt comas;
and again:
Thus Catullus, Manu Pineam

v. 2, p.
quate taedam
so Apuleius, 10
;
Veluti nuptiales epuias obiturae dominae, coruseis faci;
bus praelucebant
465.
and Euripides
vvjKptKai
Xafiira&ci.
Cf.
Becker's Ckarikles,
Among
to
the
Jews lamps
fed with oil
were more common.
The
early Christians
seem
have used indiscriminately either, as the expressions,

It
it
faculae nuptiales, lucernae

to signify
conjugales, denote.
is
only in later Greek, that
>.af.inii
came
not a torch
earlier
or link,
but as
here
would seem, a lamp fed wiih

X^;^;J'of
oil,
which would at an
s. v. Xu/ittijj.)
time have been expressed by
or c\\vx'"oi'-
(See Passow,
Yet
the mention of oil would not of itself exclude the possibility that these also were torches.
For Elphinstone
of lighting up
bottle [which
t is
{Ffist.
of India,
v.
l,p. 333,) has noted,
"The
true
oil
Hindu way
by torches held by men,
who
feed the flame with
from a sort of
would answer
to the dyytioi' here] constructed for the purpose."
Thus
it
was
ruled that wherever there
were ten Jews
living in one place, there
was a
congregation, and there a synagogue ought to be
built.
completeness of the number ten
may
d.
be found collected by Vitringa,
Much more on the De Synagogd, p.
232, seq., and in Bahr's SymhoUk
Mos. Cultus,
v. l,p.
175.
THE TEN
this exclusion,
VIRGINS.
to
I95
and of the dreadful persecutions
which
all
who were
thus
left
out should be exposed.

forfeit
But the
root of the matter being in

fall
them, they did not
every thing, nor
short of the final bliss of
heaven.*
There might be an argument

foolish
in favour of this view,
drawn
from the circumstance of these
being styled virgins as well as

office
the others, if others sometimes undertook the

grootn,
of welcoming the brideto these,
and
yet the
Lord had chosen
to
give that appellation

that to
and
de-
to specify
them as virgins.
But seeing
such the task

in the
in the natu-
ral order of things appertained, there is
no weight
argument
rived from the
which they bear. The second error is one of which Chrysostom

title title
is
the chief champion.

is
He, taking the
" virgi?is" in the
literal,
while everything else
taken in a figurative sense, limits the application of the parable
to those
who had made
a profession of outward virginity,"!" instead of seeing that

12, 18, v. 2, p. 276)
* Thus Poiret (Divin. OEconom.,
].
4,
c.
Illi
qui tempore
Adventiis in statu quidem gratiiE veisabuntur, at multis simul imperfectionibus,multis-
que negligentiis
iniplicati,
quas hue usque
nondum
correxerint nee abluerint, hi
inquam
k regno glorioso Christi

sibi obserari
in terra,
dum
mille anni periodi hujus effluent, exclusi, portam
videbunt.
Itaque foris relinquentur in tenebris purgationis, eorumque be-
atitude ad Resurrectionem usque generalem et post
annos mille regni Christi atque
Sanctorum
differetur.
Hoc ipsum
satis
aperte docet Parabola Virginum fatnarum.
Videmus enim eas ob negligentiam suam a convivio nuptiali fuisse exclusas, etiamsi Janua Virgines fuerint, et lampadem fidei habuerint, et Dominum invooaverint. enim jam ciausa nunquam ilerum aperiebatur dum hoc tempus durabat quoniam comet
;
motio, quae hoc in
quam Deus hoc in sam operabitur (quae veluti janua Adhuc semel, inquit, futura est.
poris per puritatem perfectam
divinae hujus motionis receptis
mundo futura est anlequam finis ejus ac periodorum adveniat, per mundo et in omnibus quas ibidem adsunt, mutationem banc glorioerit
ac introductio in regnum ejusdem) non

et
nisi
semel
et
movebo caelum
terram
omnesque qui
turn
tem-
ad gloriam adipiscendam idonei erunt, impressionibus
mutabuntur
at post
hoc tempus ad Resurrectionem
Tunc enim aderit dies quietis eandem jam erunt introducfae. Abhinc vero oportebit, ut Virgines fatuas, et quicunque nondum vcste nuptiali fuerint induti, iEternitatem ipsam exspectent. Neque enim probabile videtur Virginibus istisnegligentibus, in quibustamen tot jam erant dispositiones bonae pariterque iis, qui eo tempore nondum rite parati, bona tamen initia jam fecerant, aeternum pereundum esse sed nee probabile est quamcumque illi, post januam semel clausam, praeparationem sint adhibituri, Christum iterum ex quiete sua exiturum, et in gratiam eorum novam crisin ac separationem aliquam peculiarem in natura instituturum esse. Von Mayer (Bl&tter fUr hOkere Wahrheit,v. 7, p. 247) interprets the parable in the same manner, and Olshaugeneralem usque, nulla nova commotio aut mutatio
fiet.
naturae ac creaturarum
omnium
quae
in
sen.
+ Augustine (Serm. 93,
c.
2)
warns
his hearers that the parable is not to be limited
to such, but belongs to all souls, quae habent
Catholicam fidem,
xi. 2.
et
habere videntur bona
opera in EcclesiaDei
and he quotes 2 Cor.

;
In another place he says, Virginiin loc.)

:
tas cordis, fides incorrupta
and Jerome (Coinm. in Matth.,

Dei
notitia, et
Virgines appel-
lantur, quia gloriantur in unius
mens eorum
idololatriae turba
non con-
196
the virginity here
spiritual
to
is
THE TEN VIRGINS.

the profession of a pure faith, the soul guiltless of
fornication, of apostacy
from the one God.

forth to
For such we are
understand by the virgins
who go
meet the bridegroom,

to
all
who
profess to be waiting for the

all
Son of God from heaven,

shall
love his
be-
appearing,
who with
their lips join in the glorious confession, "
lieve in Jesus Christ our Lord,
who
come again
to
judge both the
quick and the dead," and who do not by their deeds openly deny that hope all are included, who would desire to include themselves in the
;
number of his
confess to the
believing people.
This they have
all in
same Lord, they profess to have even as the virgins were alike in this, that they
to
the
all
common, that they same hope in him,

and
" took their lamps,
went forth
immediately added, "Jive But, of them were wise, and jive of them were foolish ;" the numbers make nothing to the case only the division is essential. They are not disit is
meet the bridegroom.'"
tinguished into good and bad, but as the hearers at Matt.

into
vii.
25-27,
"wise" and "foolish," for as a certain degree of good will toward the truth is assumed there in the foolish from their putting themselves in
the relation of hearers, and even attempting to build, so here from their
going forth
to
meet the bridegroom.

proceeds
:
We
i.
have them described

folly of these
the wise,
2 Pet.
i.
5-8, and the foolish, 2 Pet.

to tell
9.
The Lord
oil
is
wherein the
and the wisdom
of those consisted
with them
;
"They
is
that were foolish took their lamps, hut took no

It
hut the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps."
evident that here

;
the point on which the interpretation of the para-
ble turns
the success of an interpreter
must depend on
his rightly exoil
plaining what the having, or not having, a reserved supply of
may
mean.
Here again we meet with a controversy between

wedding garment.
the
Romanists
and the Reformers, not different from that wliich they held concerning
the signification of the
The
latter asserted that
what
these virgins lacked
was
the living principle
of faith
what they had

lamps shining
were the outer deeds of Christianity, these were
their
stupratur
and again (Ad. Jovin.,
1.
2)
Decern virgines non totius generis humani,

futurum judicium non putant.
sed solicitorum et pigrorum exempla sunt, quorum aiteri semper Domini praestolantur
adventum,
aiteri
somno
et inertiae se dantes,
There
is
apparently Chrysostom's limitation of the parable, in the use
made
1.
of
it
in a
prayer for
the consecration of nuns, given by Mabillon, {Liiurg. Gall.,
3, p. 311,)
where,
among
lian
other allusions to the parable, this occurs:
Regalem januam cum sapientibus

more than an adaptation. Tertulsome of the
while the five wise
Virginibus licenter introeant.
Yet
this
may
be no
{De Ani7nd,
c.
18) mentions a singular use or rather abuse which

:
Gnostics
made
of this parable
The
five foolish virgins are the five senses, foolish inas;
much
as they are easily deceived, and often give fallacious notices
are the reasonable powers, which have the capability of apprehending ideas.
THE TEN
before
faith
to
;
VIRGINS.
the inner spirit of
life,
I97
the living
men
this
what they wanted

the oil
in the
was
was
which they should have had,

day of
if their
lamps were
burn bright before Christ
his appearing.*
The Romanist
faith,
reverses the whole, and affirms that what they had
was a
ii.
failh
j)
but then it which, not having works, was " dead, being alone j" (Jam.
to
was
17
they were not careful

faith,
maintain good works, to nourish the
lamp of
for
which they bore

sight of
in sight of
;
men, with deeds of
light
stir
done
and
in the
God
they did not by well-doing
up the
grace of God that was

sloth
in them, and so through this sluggishness and which they did not use was taken from them their lamps burned dim, and at last were wholly extinguished, and they had
the grace
not wherewith to revive

different senses the
them anew.f
It is
needless to observe in what
two parties use the word faith,
outward profession of the truth

principle of Christian
life.:}:
the
Romanist as the
root
the
Reformers as the
and
livinor
If
it
were not
for those opposite uses

to,
of the
same term,
another,
the two interpretations
would not be opposed
or exclude, one
certainly would not be incapable of a
fair reconciliation.
For
life,
we may
with
oil,
equally contemplate the foolish virgins
who were unprovided

to the
as those going through a round of external duties, without
without love, without any striving after inward conformity
law of
* This
is
very
much Augustine's
. .
.
Interpretation (Ep. 140,
c.
33
Serm. 149,
c.
11)
Lampades bona
conversatio
;
sunt opera
et ipsa quae etiam
coram hominibus
fiat
. .
lucet laudabilis
est ergo ferre
ibi
sed magni interest qua mentis intentione

nisi
Quid
oleum secum,
Doctrina
habere conscientiam placendi Deo de bonis operibus, et non

si
finem
gaudii sui ponere,

Spiritifis
homines laudent.
Cocceius explains the
oil
in the
:
vessels thus,
Sancti fidem pascens in perpetuum ut non deficiat

;
and Cajetan, a
Romanist
will quote
expositor, consents to this interpretation
them
In hoc diflerunt
words are so excellent that I operantes bona opera, quod aliqui habent testimonihis
um
suae bonitatis foris
tantum in
ipsis operibus bonis:
intus
enim non sentiunt
se dili-
gere Deura in toto corde, se pcBnitere peccatorum quia sunt ofTensae Dei, se diligere
proximum
Sanctus
diligere
propter
foris
Deum.
Alii
autem operantur
sic
bona, ut et ipsa opera lucentia

Sentiunt enim in corde toto se
et
testimonium
reddant boni animi, et intus in conscientia propria ipse Spiritus
testificetur spiritui
eorum quod
filii
Dei sunt.
Deum,
pcenitere propter
Deum,
hoc
est
diligere
proximum
seipsum propter Deum,

tristandi et
et breviter
Deum
esse sibi rationem

:
amandi, sperandi, timendi, gaudendi,
breviter operandi intus et extra
enim oleum
in vasis propriis.
:
t This view too has
its
supporters
among
the Fathers
fide
thus Jerome
confiteri, sed
(in
joc.)
Non
X
habent oleum, quae videntur simiii quidem

Cf.
Dominum
virtutum
opera negligunt.
Origen, in Matth., Tract. 32.

:
As
when he says Animae tuae anima fides. For instance, who would refuse to accede to the explanation
Augustine,
given by Gerhard?
:
Per lampades accensas externa
oris professio et exterior pietatis species
per oleum ver6
in vasis interior cordis juslitia, vera fides, sincera charitas, vigilantia, prudentia, quae
solius Dei,
non autem hominum
oculis obvia, inteliiguntur.
198
God,
to
THE TEN VIRGINS.

whom
religion is all
husk and no kernel
or again,
we may
con-
template them as those who, confessing Christ with their
lips,
and hold-
ing fast the form of the truth, yet are not diligent in the work of the
Lord,
in acts
of charity, of humility, and self-denial
and who therefore
by
that
law which decrees that from him who hath not shall be taken
lose that
even that which he hath, do gradually

and
it
grace which they had>
find that
they have
lost
it
altogether, at the decisive
moment when
It is
is
were need that they should have it in largest measure. that whatever is merely outward in the Christian profession
clear
the
lamp
whatever
When we
works as
faith is the
is
inward and
spiritual
is
the oiljajdûp, in the vessels.
contemplate with St. James the faith as the body, and the
that
which witnesses
for
an informing vivifying soul, then the

oil
lamp, the works the
in the vessels
but when on
it.
the
other hand
we contemplate with
St.
Paul the works as only having a
value from the living principle of faith out of which they spring, then
the works are the lamp, and the faith the
in either case, before
oil
which must feed
Yet
oil,
we have
fully exhausted the
meaning of
the
we must
get beyond both the works and the faith to something higher
than either, the informing Spirit of
God which prompts

oil
is
;
the works and
quickens the
faith,
and of which Spirit
ever in Scripture the

iv. 2,
standing symbol.
(Exod. xxx. 22-33
Zech.
12
Acts
x.
38
Heb.
i.
9.)
But under whatever aspect we regard the

in the
relation
between the
is,
oil
lamps and
in
the vessels,
the purpose of the parable
as
we
is
learn from the Lord's concluding words, to impress upon the
members
it
of his Church their need of vigilance.
Regarded
in the one view,
warning
that they be careful to maintain good works,
weary of well
says.
doing,
that they be not
that they be not of the
number of
those
who
are
satisfied with saying.
Lord, Lord, while they do not the things that he

aspect,
it
Regarded under the other

state,
is
a warning that they be
watchful over their inward
over
is
their affections,
withdrawn from the eyes of man,

to be glorious within, to
seen only of
God
over which, they seek

all
that
have a continual supply of the
Spirit of Christ
Jesus in their innermost hearts, to approve themselves before God,* as
This
is
a point which
is
brought out with great frequency and urgency, by the old

c.
expositors, by Augustine, Ep. 140,
31, and again, Serm. 93,
c.
by Gregory the
Great, Horn. 12 in Evang.
and with much beauty by the author of a sermon found

(v. 2, p.
among
tollitur
the
works of
St.
Bernard
722)
Oleum
in larnpade est
opus
bonum
in
maniffstatione, sed duni videtur k proximis caritas operis,
plerumque
el
adsurgit clatus animus operantis, et

et carens
dum dum
miranturet laudant, exin se et
non
in
Domino
gloriatur,
lumen lampadis adnullatur,

clarfe
fomento congruo lampas, quae coram

Prudentes ver6 virgines prteter
hominibus
lucet,
coram Domino tenebratur.
THE TEN VIRGINS.

we must remember, and
by the
I99
well as to show a fair and unblamable conversation before the world.

In either case,
the lesson, that
it
adds
much
to the
foolish virgins are
meant,
solemnity of
not hypocrites, not
self-conscious dissemblers,
much
less the
openly profane and ungodly,

all
but the negligent in prayer, the slothful in work, and
those,
whose
scheme
oil
first
for a Christian life is laid out to satisfy the
eyes of men, and not
to please at all
God who
;
seeth in secret.
Nor
is it
that they
;
have actually no
they have some, but not enough
their lamps,
when they
In
go
forth, are evidently
burning, else they could not speak of them
as on the point of expiring just as the bridegroom

fact, the
was approaching.
exactly parallel
having no
oil
provided in the vessels

;
is
to the
having no deepness of earth

the sun scorches
it,
(Matt.
xiii.
till
;)
the seed springs
up
till
the
lamps burn on
their oil is exhausted tlu'ough

is
the length of the bridegroom's delay.
In each case there
something
it is
more than
merely external profession, conscious

;
to itself that
no-
thing besides
was only survive delay,

may
it
is
not that there
was no
in
faith,
but rather that there
that _^cZe5 temporaria
which could not endure temptation nor

life
the
Christian
manifestation,
but not fed from
deep internal fountains.
But
they are like the wise virgins,
who
recog-
nize the possibility that the bridegroom
may
tarry long, that the

its
Church
;
not very soon, perhaps not in their days, enter into
glory
of
toil
who, therefore, foresee that they

self-denial,
may have
a long
life to live
and
feel
before they shall be called to cease from their labours, beshall
fore the
kingdom
come unto them
and who
them
consequently
that
it is
not a few
warm
excited feelings which will carry
them suc-
cessfully through all this,
which
fire
will enable
to
endure unto the
end
for
such are but as a
up and
as
among straw, which will quickly blaze quickly be extinguished. They feel that principles as well
as feelings must be engaged in the work,
that their first good impulses
and desires will carry them but a very
little
way, unless they be
re-
vived, strengthened, and purified, by a continual supply of the Spirit of
oleum quod
animse
in
lampadibus habent, oleum aliud
in vasis
reponunt: quia niniirum sanctae
dum
sponsi sui prEDStolaiitur adventum,

ilia
dum
toto desiderio ei
clamant quotidie.
Adveniat regnum tuum, praeter

ab intus, de
opera quae proximia lucent ad Dei gloriam et videntur,
aliqua in occulto, ubi solus Pater videt, opera faciunt
Haec
est gloria
filiac
regis
dum
plus de oleo quod in vasis conscientiae dilucescit,
quim
de eo quod lucet
judicat
foris gloriatur; periisse aestimat
omne quod
cernitur, nee id
dignum
remune-
ratione, quod favores
hominum
prosequuntur.
Latenter igitur quae prajvalet, operatur,
petit secretum, orationibus pulsat ccelum, fundit
lacrymas
testes amoris,
haec est
gloria, sed
ab intus, sed invisa,
filiae
regis et amicae.
habent, quia nisi ad nitorem vanae gloria) et
Hoc oleum fatuae virgines non favorem hominum bona non operantur.
Hoc oleum
in
quo prudentes confidunt,in abditis conscientiarum vasculis reponunt.
200
God.
If the
THE TEN VIRGINS.

bridegroom were
to
come
at once,
it
perhaps
it
might be an-
other thing, but their wisdom
is that,
since
may
possibly be otherwise,
they see their need of malting provision against the contingency.
When
ry,
it is
said in the parable that the

this
bridegroom did actually

hints,
tar-
we may number
it
among
the
many
which were given by

be
our Lord, that
was
possible the time of his return might

first disciples.
It
delayed
;
beyond the expectation of his
was
a hint
and no more
if
more had been given, if the Lord had said plainly that he would not come for many centuries, then the first ages of the Church would have
been placed
ful
in a
disadvantageous position, being deprived of that power-
motive
to holiness
and diligence supplied
to
each generation of the

It is
faithful,
by the
possibility
of the Lord's return in their time.

to believe that
not
that he desires each succeeding generation
he will cer-
tainly return in their time, for he does not desire our faith and our practice to be
all
founded on an error,
as, in that case, the faith
and practice of
should
generations except the last would be.
But
it
is
a necessary element
it
of the doctrine concerning the second coming of Christ, that
be possible at any time, that no generation should consider

ble in theirs.*
it
improba-
The
assume
faith
love, the earnest longing of those first Christians
made them
and joy of
to
that
coming
to
be close at hand.
In the strength
died, the
this
they lived and suffered, and
when they
kingdom was indeed come unto thern.f But in addition to the reason here noted, why the Church should not have been acquainted with the precise time of her Lord's return, it may be added, that it was in Prophecy is no fatalism,:}: and it was alitself, no doubt, undetermined.
ways open
to
every age by
faith
and prayer
to
bring about, or at least

faithful not
to hasten that
coming, so that the apostle speaks of the

for,
mere;
ly as looking
Pet.
iii.
but also hasting, the coming of the day of

iii.
God
(2
12
;)
and compare Acts
19, "
Repent ye
...
that the
times of refreshing
may come
up of
the
;" these " times of refreshing" being eviall
dently identical with "the times of restitution of

the glorious setting
things," (ver. 21,)

find the
kingdom of Christ
and we
same
* Augustine: Ariima,
c.
Latet ultimus dies, ut observetur omnis dies; and Tertullian (De
33) gives the reason

:
why
the Father has reserved to himself the knowledge
of that day
Ut
pendula, expectatione solicitudo fidei probetur, semper

quotidie timens, quod quotidie sperat.
right to dissent
diem observans,
dum semper ignorat,

t
Yet Augustine, claiming a

c. 5)
from a scheme of prophetic interpreto be already instant, says
tation current in his day,
which made the end of the world

:
very beautifully {Ep. 199,

serit
Non
ergo
ille diligit
;
Adventum Domini,
sed
ille
qui ilium as-
propinquare, aut
sit,
ille
qui asserit
non propinquare
potiusquieumsive prop6
sive longfe
t
sinceritate fidei, firmitate spei, ardore caritalis expectat.

fixi.
In Augustine's words, Praedixi, non
THE TEN VIRGINS.

truth, that the quicker or tardier
201
is
approach of that time

(2 Pet.
iii.
conditional,
elsewhere declared in clearest terms.

with these passages,
the
9.)
In agreement
to
we pray
and
that
to
it
may
please
God "
accomplish
number of his
left
elect,
hasten his kingdom."

in this
matter was
by the wisdom of God
But while the uncertainty, it was yet images of the Church had
the
portant that after the expectations of the
first
proved
to
be ungrounded, those
who examined
Scriptures should
find intimations there that this
might probably be the case.*

this present
Of these
intimations there are
many, and
passage
is
one.
But
and
to
return; the bridegroom tarrying, the virgins " all slumbered
slept."
The
steps
by which they
fell
into
deep sleep are here markslept pro-
ed, first they
nodded the head or slumbered, and next they

this sleeping
foundly.
Some have understood by
ness that will be found in the whole Church,
of all, a certain unreadithe faithful them-
certain acquiescence in the
present time and in the present things, even

selves,
ble,
among
though with
this difference, that their

;
unreadiness will be remedia-
and easily removed its removal being actually signified by the trimming and replenishing of their lamps, while that of the others will be beyond remedy .f Augustine proposes, but it is only to reject, this interpretation, that by the sleeping of all is signified the love of all in some measure growing cold for he asks, Why were these wise admitij:
ted
unless for the very reason that their love had not
is,
grown
cold
But there
he says, a sleep
is
common
and
to all, the sleep
of death, which
by
these words
indicated
this is the
explanation of Chrysostom,
all
Theophylact, Jerome, Gregory the Great, and nearly

terpreters.
It
the ancient in-
seems, indeed, far preferable
to that other
which under-
stands by this slumbering and sleeping the negligences and omissions
of even the best Christians, for
it is is
scarcely probable that our Lord
would have, as
gence,
it
were, given this allowance for a certain degree of

all
negligence, seeing that with
the most earnest provocations to

It is
dili-
we
are ever inclined to indulge in spiritual sloth.

all that
most im-
probable of
he should have done so in a parable of which the

is
very aim and moral
that
we
Ne
be always ready,
that
we
be
7iot
taken
* Augustine (Ep. 199, esse venturum, et venisse

tes, et
t
c.
5):
forte ciini transisset
tempus, quo
eum
crediderant
non cernerent, etiam
caetera fallaciter sibi promitti arbitran-
de
ipsa,
mercede
:
fidei desperarent.
So Cocceius
Significat securitatem, quae Ecclesiam Christianam post
primam
view
fol-
quasi vigiliam noctis persecutionum
cum pace
invasit
and Grotius,
iii.
in this
;
lowing the Auct. Oper. Imperf., quotes in confirmation Jam.
Maldonatus gives
present day
X
:
this
explanation in
2 Rom. xiii. 2. a form somewhat modified, and popular at the
Dormire interpretor desinere de adventu Domini cogitare.

c.
Serm. 93,
Ep. 140,
c.
32.
14
202
unprepared.
not be
THE TEN VIRGINS.

But perhaps by
that
all,
this
slumbering and sleeping more
may
meant than
to
having taken such measures as they countto
ed needful
enable them
meet the bridegroom as they would wish,
calmly and securely awaited his approach.* Moreover, the conveniences of the parabolic narration which required to be consulted seem to
require such a circumstance as
in a condition to
this.
For had the
foolish
virgins been
their
them,
would naturally
arrived,
to
mark the lapse of time, and the gradual warning of knowing that they had not wherewith to replenish lamps, they,
have bestirred themselves before the decisive
procure a
moment
company
new
supply.
The
fact that they
fell
asleep and were not

gives,
awakened except by the cry of the advancing bridal and scarcely anything else would give, an easy and
natural explanation of their utter and irremediable destitution of
oil at
the
moment when
dance.
there
was most need
that they should
have
it
in abun-
And had
the wise virgins not slept as well,
had
it
they been
represented as watching while the others were sleeping,
would have
seemed
like a lack of love
upon
their parts, not to
have warned their com-
panions of the lapse of time and the increasing dimness with which their
lamps were burning, while yet help was

It
possible.
was
to
at midnight,
and not
till
then, that "there loas a

to
crymade, Becry
hold the hridegroom cometh ; go ye out
meet him ;"
this
we may
suppose
have been made either by a part of the retinue running before,

till
or by the applauding multitude, who, even
that late hour,
had been waitand thus
ing to see the passage of the procession through the streets,

testified
their lively
sympathy
in
what was going forward.
But the
spirituarsignification of the cry at midnight has been variously given.
Most are agreed to find an allusion to " the voice of the archangel and the trump of God," (1 Thess. iv. 16,) which shall be heard when the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. Some, however, explain
the cry as
coming from watchers
in the
together lacking in the last times,
by whom
Church, such as shall not be

the signs of the times
al-
have
been observed, and who will proclaim aloud the near advent of the Lord,
the heavenly Bridegroom,
when he draws
nigh, accompanied
by the angels
triumphant
the friends of the bridegroom, and leading
home
his bride, the
Church, and looking
to
be met and greeted by the members of his Church

bride,:}:
yet militant on earth, themselves a part of that mystical

* Hilary
that
Comm.
in 31atth.,c. 27,) unites this
meaning and
the preceding
Exspec"
tantium somnus credentium quies
est, et in pcEnitentise
tempore mors temporalis univer-
Borum.
t Storr,
I
De Far.
si
Christi, in his Opusc. Acad., v. 1, p. 133.

Ixxxiii. qu.
Augustine {Quasi.
59)
Ex
ipsis
virginibus constat ea quae dicitur

filii
sponsa,
tanquam
omnibus Christianis in Ecclesiam concurrenlibus
ad matrem
*
so he
THE TEN VIRGINS.

bring her to the glorious mansion
203
the house of everlasting
may
joy and gladness which he has prepared for her.

midnight :"
it
And
this
cry
is
" at
was an opinion current among the later Jews, that the Messiah would come suddenly at midnight, as their forefathers had gone out from Egypt and obtained their former deliverance, at that very hour, (Exod. xii. 29,) from which belief Jerome* supposes the apostolic tradition of not dismissing the people
on Easter eve,
till
the middle night
was
first,
past, to
have been derived.

if
be assembled
Christ should
They waited till then, that they might come, who was twice to glorify that night,
and again, by assuming in
in the
it
by
in
it
resuming
:
his life,
the do-
minion of the world

us an argument
for
and not a few have found
passage before
supposing that the Lord's coming would actually take
pace
night
at the
is
middle night.
But
it is
more natural
is
to
suppose that mid-
here named, simply because that

falls
the time
deep sleep
upon men,
when
for,
when commonly
parable would be least looked
such an occurrence as that in the accounted least likely to happen j
and because thus the unexpectedness of Christ's coming, of the day of the Lord which " cometh as a thief in the night," (1 Thess. v. 2,) is
manner set out.f But when the cry was heard, med their lamps.^j^ Every one
in a lively
''
then all those virgins arose,
and
trim-
at the last
prepares to give an account

faith, seri-
of his works, inquires into the solidity of the grounds of his

ously searches whether his
life
has been one which will have praise not

feels will avail nothing, but also of God.
merely of men,
for that
he now
Many
hope
put off this examination of the very grounds of their faith and
to the last
moment
nay, some manage

further
it
to defer
it,
and the miseratill
ble discoveries which will then be made, beyond the grave, even
the
day of judgment,
but
cannot be deferred.
When
the
concurrere dicantur,
cum ex
ipsis filiis
congregatis constet ea quae dicitur mater.
(See
Rev. xix. 7,9.)

*
Comm.
in Matth., in loc.
c. 6)
; :
Quid
est
:
media, nocte?
Quando non
speratur,
quando omnino non creditur

securis
t
and
Jerome
Subito enim, quasi intempestii nocte, et
omnibus Christi resonabit adventus.

(
Ward View
in India of
mony
of the Hindoos, v. 2, p. 29), describing the parts of a marriage cerewhich he was an eye-witness, says " After waiting two or three
:
hours, at length near midnight
it
;
'Behold, the bridegroom cometh
was announced as in the very words of Scripture, go ye out to meet him.' All the persons employed
now
lighted their lamps,
procession
too late to
in their hands to fill up their stations in the some of them had lost their lights and recre unprepared, hut it teas then seek them ; and the cavalcade moved forward."
;
and ran with them
Augustine
Rationem praeparant reddere de operibus
suis.
Cocceius
Quivia
homoapud
sefidei suae soliditatem requisivit.
204
day of Christ comes,
it
THE TEN
will
VIRGINS.
to
be impossible for any
remain ignorant
any longer of
his true state, for that
day
will be a revelation of the hid-
den things of men, of things which had remained hidden even from them selves ; a flood of light will then pour into all the darkest corners of all
hearts,
and show every man
to
himself exactly as he is, so that self-decep-
tion will be
no longer possible.
Thus when
to their
the foolish virgins arose to

their
trim their lamps, they discovered

the
point of expiring for lack
to
dismay that
of nourishment
wherewith
need
to
replenish them
to their
and
lamps were on
had not
in their
that they
so that they
were compelled
wiser companions, saying, " Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.''* Of course the request and the refusal
turn
which
it
calls out,
like the discourse
between Abraham and Dives,
are only the clothing and outer garb of the truth

portant
!
no
but of
we
truth
how im-
other indeed than this, that
we
shall look in vain
from
men
for that
grace which God only can supply, that
shall be miserably
disappointed, if
we
think thus to borrow in an easy lazy way, that
which must be bought,

deavour.
won,
that
is,
by earnest prayer and

lest there
diligent en-
" But the wise answered, saying, Not so jf
he not
enough
for us and you.'' Every man must live by his own faith. There is that which one can communicate to another, and make himself the richer
as one
who
gives another light, has not therefore less light, but

in the light of
walks henceforth
two torches instead of one
but there
very
The hand-lamp was naturally small, and would not contain a supply of oil for many hours of continuous burning even the lamps used at a festival, which would
:
be larger, needed to be replenished,

nius,
if
kept burning long into the night.
Thus
;
Petro-
22
Tricliniarchus experrectus lucernls occidentibus oleum infuderat

lucernae occidentes are the lamps here, lamps failing
Bibles, not already "
see also c.
it
70.
is
Such
and "going out," as
in the
margin of our
gone out,"
for in that case
they would not
merely have needed
to trim
and feed them, but must have asked from
their
companions
also permission to kindle

itself
them anew, of which yet we hear nothing.

oil,
The trimming
implied two things, the infusion of fresh
and the removing whatever had gath-
was clogging the wick. For the last purpose there was often a little instrument that hung by a slender chain from the lamp itself pointed for the removing of the snuffs (the putres fungi) from around the flame, and furnished with a little hook This inat the side by which the wick, when need was, might be drawn further out.
ered round, and
strument
is
sometimes found
:
still
attached to the bronze lamps discovered in sepulchres.
In Virgil's Moretum, 11
Callus,
t
haste.
V. 2, p.
Et producit acu stupas humore carentes.
(See Becker's
205, seq.)
in the
The answer
Greek
is
strongly elliptical as in a
illi
moment
of earnestness and
Bengel: Abrupta oratio, festinationi
conveniens.
On
the spirit of the an:
swer of the wise virgins as regards themselves, Augustine remarks

dictum
est,
Non
desperatione
:
sed sobrii et
pift.
humilitate
and Chrysostom {De Fmnit., Horn. 3)
Ov
Si' d(rTr\ayy(viav
tovto Troiovuai, dXXu Sia rd otcvov tov xatpov.
THE TEN
is also
VIRGINS.
in
its
205
that
which being divine
is
very nature incommunicable
man to man, which can be obtained only from above, and which every man must obtain for himself; one can indeed point out to another
from
where he
is
it
to dig for the
precious ore, but after
all
is said,
each one
must bring
up
for
himself and by his
own
was
efforts.
The
wise virgins
did all they could for their unfortunate companions,
gave them the best

Avhen they said,
counsel that under the circumstances
possible,
and buy for yourselves ;" turn to the dispensers of heavenly grace, to them whom God has appointed in the Church as channels of his gifts, or as some would explain it, to the prophets and apostles, and learn from their words and teaching, how to reSometimes vive the work of God in your souls, if yet there be time.
"
Go
ye rather to them that
sell,
the words have been understood as ironically spoken ;* but
how much
more
pleasing,
how much more

all
consistent with their character
whom
the wise virgins represent, to see in them a counsel of love, of that love
which emphatically " hopeth

panions that they trust not
time, to
in
things,"
an
exhortation to their com-
man, but betake themselves, if it yet be the sources from which true effectual grace can alone be obtain-
ed, that they seek yet to revive the
work of grace
in their hearts.
Nor
can we refuse
to
see in the reason which they give for refusing to comlest there he not
ply with the others' request, namely,
enough for us and
you," an argument against works of supererogation, however the

ish expositors
words.
"
Rommay resist the drawing of any such conclusion from the The righteous shall hardly be saved ;"f the wise virgins
did not feel that they had anything over,

for themselves,
aught
which, as not needing
they could impart
to others.
All which they hoped to

to
attain was,
that their
own lamps might burn bright enough

company,
to enter festal
allow
them
to
make
part of the bridal
with those that enter-
ed into the joy of the
chamber.:}:
* Augustine (Serm. 93,

sio
;
c.
8)
Non
:
consulentium sed irridentium
est ista respon-
and Luther quotes,
Justi ridebunt in interitu

c.
impiorum.
t Augustine (Ep. 140,

accipiunt,
illis
34)
Petunt a sapientibus oleum, nee inveniunt, nee

vel
sibi
respondentibus
se nescire, utriim
illo
sufficiat ipsa
conscientia,
qua exspectant misericordiam sub

bitur
Judice, qui ciim in throne sederit, quis gloria-
castum se habere cor, aut quis gloriabitur

Tertullian {De
is
mundum
se esse a peccato, nisi super-
exultet misericordia judiciol

t
Pudic,
c.
22) makes good application of

pacis
this part
of the para-
ble,
when he
opposing the
:
iibelli
which the confessors
in the African
Church
gave to the lapsed

est in alios
Sufficiat martyri propria delicta
purg&sse.
Ingrati aut superbi
quoque spargere, quod pro magno
fuerit consecutus.
Quis alienam mor-
tem sua
solvit nisi solus
nihil ipse deliquisti,

tuae sufficere et tibi
Proinde qui ilium aemularis donando delicta, si Si vero peccator es, quomodo oleum faculae plane patere pro me. et mihi poterit ? Gurtler {Syst. Theol. Froph.,^. 711) gives a
Dei
filius ?....
206
THE TEN VIRGINS.

:
So much was granted them
while
the others
were absent, seeking
to repair their past neglect, " the
bridegroom came, and they thai were rea-
dy,"* they whose lamps were burning, having been fed

vessels,
anew from
their
^'went in with him
to the
marriage,^ and the door was shut ;"
shut as
much
12.)
for the
security and joy without interruption of those
within, as for the lasting exclusion of those without.
(See Gen.
vii.
16
Rev.
iii.
"What
door?" exclaims the author of an ancient
homily on
this parable,:}: "
That which now
is
open
to
them coming from
the east and from the west, that they

Isaac,
may
sit
down with Abraham, and
and Jacob,
in the
kingdom of heaven,
will in
that
Door which
saith,
it
Him
now
that
cometh
to
me
no wise cast out.
Behold how
is
open, which shall then be closed for evermore.
Murderers come,
re-
and they are admitted,

ceived,
unclean
publicans
and harlots come, and they are

is
and adulterers and robbers, and whosoever
of this
strange story from Melchior

that there
rather
Adamus, which witnesses how strongly it was once felt was here an argument against all hoping in man and in the merits of men The words are these " There was a. d. 1322, exhibited at than in God.
:
Eisenach before the Margrave Frederick of Misnia, the mystery concerning the
wise and as
five
The wise were St. Mary, St. Catharine, St. BarTo these come the foolish, seeking that they bara, St. Dorothy, and St. Margaret. will impart to them of their oil, that is, as the actor explained it, intercede with God
many
foolish virgins.
for
them that they
heaven.
also may be admitted to the marriage, that is, to the kingdom of What happens? the wise absolutely deny that they can communicate aught.
Then a
prayer
sad spectacle began

all
the
foolish
knocked, they wept, they were instant in

to depart
but
profited not a jot, they
were bidden
and buy
oil.
Which
fell
when
that prince
saw and heard, he

'
is said to
have been so amazed, that he

'
into
if
a grievous and dangerous sickness.

neither
What,' he exclaimed,
is
our Christian faith,
Mary nor any
other saint can be persuaded to intercede for us]'

its
From
this
sadness an apoplexy had

buried at Eisenach."
cellanies, V. 2, p. 415.
ite subject
rise,
of which he died the fourth day after, and

is
was
This event
It
told
with some differences in Carltle's Mis-
may
be observed here that this parable

the middle ages.
was a very
favour-
for the mysteries in
(See
Du
Meril's Poesies popu-
laires Latines, p. 138.)

* In the et
Pirke Avoth there

triclinio.
is
this
comparison
Seculum hoc simile
est vestibulo,
tri-
seculum futurum
Praepara teipsum in vestibulo, ut ingredi possis in
clinium.
in almost every
Compare Milton's Sonnet to a Virtuous Young Lady, where word to this latter portion of our parable.
there
is
allusion
Thy care is fixed and zealously attends To fill thy odorous lamp with deeds of light. And hope that reaps not shame. Therefore
Thou, when
Passes to
the
be sure.
Bridegroom with
his feastful friends
bliss in the
mid hour of night,

is
Hast gained thy entrance, virgin wise and pure.

}
The same from whom an
extract
given, p. 198, note.
THE TEN VIRGINS.

kind, come, and the open door doth not
207
itself to
deny
them, for Christ,
the Door,
is infinite to
pardon, reaching beyond every degree and every
amount of wickedness.
But then what

prayer,
shut,
saith he
The
door
is
shut.
No
one's penitence,
no one's
no
one's groaning shall
any
more be admitted. That door is which admitted David idolatry,
which received Aaron
after his
after his adultery
after his homicide,

deli-
which not only did not repel Peter after his threefold denial, but (See Luke xvi. 26.) vered its keys to be guarded by him."
The door once

Lord, Lord, open
ing sought
it
shut, " oftenoards
came
for
the other
virgins,
sayings
to us,''
not that they have
in vain, they
come looking
title
now found the oil, but havmercy, when now it is the

to
time of judgment.*
In the
" Lord,'' by which they address the
bridegroom, they claim
to stand in a
near and intimate relation

is
;
him
as in the " Lord, Lord," twice repeated,
an evidence of the earnest-
ness with which they
now claim admission
some say,
also of their vain
confidence
but
perhaps rather of the misgiving which already posit
sesses them, lest they should be excluded from the nuptial feast, lest
be now too
part
;
late, lest the
needful conditions be found unfulfilled on their

;
even
as
it
proves
for in
them
that solemn line of the old
Church
hymn must find itself true. Plena luctu caret fructu And in reply to their claim to be admitted they hear
sentence of their exclusion,
you,
sera pcenitentia.
"
is
from within the
ife answered
and
said, Verily
I say
unto
I know you
not."
It
not that he disclaims an outward know-
ledge, but he does not
"
know my
sheep, and
know them in that sense in which the Lord says, am known of mine." This knowledge is of
it may seem at first a when explaining, ^^ I know you " Ye know not me." Of course
necessity reciprocal, so that Augustine's, though

slight, is
indeed a very profound remark,

it is
not," he observes,
nothing else than,
the issue
is,
that the foolish virgins

"j"
remain excluded, and

Ixv.
for ever,
from
the marriage feast.
(See
Isai.
13.)
On
this
their
exclusion
Bengel observes, that there are four classes of persons; those that have
an abundant entrance into the kingdom, entering as
set into the
it
were with
sails
haven
those again that are saved, as shipwrecked mariners
reaching with difficulty the shore.
On
the other side, there are those
* Augustine, Ep. 140,

t
c.
35.
We
have at Luke
it
xiii.
25, the
same image of the excluded vainly seeking an enIt is
trance, though
appears with important modifications.
there the master,
who
has appointed a set

turned home.
the household
time in the evening by which

the hour arrives, he rises
all
his servants shall have rehis doors,
When
up and bars
and those of
open them.
and him has
who have lingered and arrive later cannot persuade him again to They remain without, and he declares the fellowship between them never been more than an outward one, and now is broken altogether.
208
THE TEN
evidently the broad
VIRGINS.
who go
them
;
way
to destruction,
whose
sins
go before
while again, there are those who, though they seemed not far off from the kingdom of God, yet miss it after all such were these five
:
foolish virgins,
fell short,
and the
fate
of these,
who were
the
so near,
and yet
after all
he observes with truth, must always appear the most misera-
ble of
all.
Lest that
may
be our
fate,
Lord says
his
to us,
for
to
what
every
he said
to his
hearers then, he says unto

in
member
day nor
of
the
it
every age,
;'*
"
all, to
Church and
'
Watch
so,
therefore,
hour
and
this
being
the only certain

:
for ye knoto neither the way to be ready

and the parable
;
upon
the
that day, is that
you be ready upon every day

is
has taught you that unreadiness upon that day
without a remedy
doom of
the foolish virgins has

life,
shown you
that the work,
which
should have been the work of a
ment.
'
Watch
it is
therefore, for ye
know
cannot be huddled up into a moneither the day nor the hour.'' "
if
This parable will obtain a wider application

that,
we keep in memory
at
while
quite true that there
is
one great coming of the Lord

in
all
the
last,
yet not the less does he

at
come
the great crises of his

j
Church,
wise and
cost,
each new manifestation of his Spirit
and at each of these
too there is a separation

foolish, as
among
those
who
are called by his name, into
they are spiritually alive or dead.
Thus
:
at Pente-
when by
his Spirit he returned to his
Church, he came
the pru-
dent in Israel went in with him to the
feast,
the foolish tarried without.

:
Thus
that
too he came at the Reformation those that had oil went in those had empty lamps, the form of godliness without the power, tarried without. Each of these was an example of that which should be more
:
signally fulfilled at the end.

It
remains
to
say a few words on the relation
in
which
this parable
it
stands to that of the Marriage of the King's Son, and

that in that the
how
happens
marriage
unworthy guest actually

as admitted to the feast.
finds admission to the
supper, and
are not so
that this
is
is
only from thence cast out, while in this the foolish virgins
It
much
might indeed be answered,

different conis
accidental,
that the differences

;
grow out of the
struction of the
two parables
but by such answers every thing that

:
distinctive in the parables
with greater respect,

explanation seems
may be explained away and we treat them when we look for some deeper lying reason. The
marriage
festivities which are there In Gerhard's words, " Those are
to be, that the
spoken
of,
arc different from these.

life in
celebrated in this
the
Church
militant, these at the last
day
in the
What
is
more
it
in this verse should
have no place
in the text,
and has probably

It is
been brought into

by Lachmann.
from the parallel passages, such as Matt. xxiv. 44.
excluded
THE TEN VIRGINS.
209
Church triumphant. To those, even they are admitted who are not adorned with the wedding garment, but to these only they to whom it is
granted that they should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for
the fine linen
is
the righteousness of saints
; ;
(Rev. xix. 8
are called by the trumpet of the Gospel

the Archangel.
;) to
those
men
to these
by the trumpet of
To
is
those,
who
:
enters can again go out from them, or

to these,
it
be cast out
who
once introduced
never goes out, nor

is
is
cast out from

shut.'
them any more
wherefore
said,
'
The door was

with
it:
"
We may
;
finish the consideration of this exquisite parable
the words in
which Augustine concludes an homily* upon
"Now
we
the
labour, and our lamps fluctuate
among
the gusts and temptations of
present world
but only
let
us give heed that our flame burn in
such strength, that the winds of temptation

than extinguish
it."']'
may
rather fan the flame
* Serm. 93,
c.
10.
Besides the passage

more brought
out,
referred to p. 207, note, there is another in

to this parable,
Luke
well.
(xii.
35-38) offering many analogies

faithful
though with differences as

is,
The
appear there not as virgins but as servants, that

is
their active la-
bour
for their
Lord
to,
and they are waiting
for
him not
duaXicrci
as here
when
he shall come
but
when he
shall return from, the
wedding
(tto'ts
U rwf ya^toi/),
from the heavenly bridal, the union with the Church in heaven.
preparedness to meet him clothes
itself
;
under images not exactly similar.

i.
The warning to a They must
have
their loins girt up, (Jer.
i.
17
Pet.
13,)
and their lights burning
that
is,
they
must be prompt and succinct

ing with
lights.
to
wait upon him, and his
home must
be bright
and beam-
The
festival
must be prepared which should celebrate

that
for themselves forth,
his return,
for
his admission
must be without delay, and then

have been prepared
to
which they have prepared

;
shall indeed prove to
"
He
shall gird
and him himself and

he did at
shall repeat
make them
in a
t
to sit
down
meat, and come

xiii.
and serve them."
What
the Paschal Supper (John
4), shall prove but a prophecy of
what he
more
glorious
manner
at the Marriage Supper of the
In early times and in the middle ages this parable
Lamb. was a very

St.
favourite subject of
Christian Art.
Munter
{Sinnbilden. d. Alt. Christ., v. 2, p. 91) mentions a picture of
the five wise virgins in the
Cemetery of
the
Church of
Agnes,
at
p.
Rome, probably
345,) describing
of very early date
and Caumont {Archit. Eelig. au Moyen Age,
the representations of the Last
Judgment
so often found over the great western door of
a Cathedral, says:
On
recontre parfois dans les voussures des portes dix statuettes de

;
femmes,
les
unes tenant soigneusement a deux mains une lampe en forme de coupe
les autres tenant
n^gligemment d'une seule main

Vierges
la
meme
a.
lampe renversê.
du Christ,
et
Le Sculpdu cotd des
teur a toujours eu soin de placer les Vierges sages
la droit
bienheureu.t
les
folles
k sa gauche, du cotd des reprouv^s.

d' Inconographie
For many further

p.
details of interest, see
Didkon's Manuel
Chretienne,
217.
210
THE TALENTS.
PARABLE
XIY.
THE TALENTS.
Matthew
xxv. 14-30.
While
the virgins
here the servants loorking

the Christian
were represented as waiting for the Lord, we have for him there the inward spiritual rest of
:
was described,
here
his external activity.
There, by the
end of the
cays
in
foolish virgins,
we were warned
against declensions and de-
in the
inward
spiritual life,
here against
sluggishness and sloth
our outward vocation and work.
That parable enforced the need of

the need of giving all diligence
keeping the heart with

also to the
all diligence, this
outward work,
if
we would
be found of Christ in peace at the
day of his appearing.

appear
It is not,
therefore, without
good reason that they

first,
in their actual order, that of the
Virgins
and the Talents
following, since the sole condition of a profitable outward
work
for the
kingdom of God,
the heart.*
distinction
is
that the life of

is
God
be diligently maintained within
Or
there
another light in which
we may
consider the
represent
between the virgins and the servants, that the
first
the
more contemplative,
the Church,
a
this
of
the last, the
more
It is
active
working members of
though
of
distinction universally recognized in early times,
of late nearly
the
lost sight
among
us.
true that every
member
Church ought
to
partake of both, of action and contemplation, so that

still
even under
to all
;
view both the parables will
keep their application
but one element
may
predominate in one, the other in another
the endeavour of each must be harmoniously to proportion them in his
own
case, according to the gifts
which he
finds within himself,
and the
needs which he sees in others around him.
We
xiii.
meet with another recension, so

virgins, (" Lest
to
speak, of this parable at
Mark
34, with not unimportant variations, as there also are traces at the
same place of the ten

ing," ver. 36
;)
coming suddenly he
which
St.
the whole, however,
find you sleepMatthew records more
distinctly, being
by
St.
Mark blended
together,
and more
briefly recorded.
* Or they
c.
1G4)
may be co-ordinated with one another. Thus Gerhard (Harm. Evang., Lampas fulgens est talentum usui datum, lampas extincta, talentum otiosum et
interram absconditum.
THE TALENTS.
There
is
211
same discourse which both
St.
no doubt, however, that
it
it
is
the
Evangelists are relating, as in both
occurs immediately after the warn-
ing concerning the calamities of the last days.
Luke
(xix. 11) has
recorded for us a parable very similar

identical,
to this one,
but certainly not
however some
expositors, as Maldonatus,
may
have affirmed
the identity of the two.*
But every thing

the parable
is
against this.
The
time
which Luke records, having been spoken when Jesus was now drawing near to Jerusalem, but had not
and place are different
;
yet
made
his triumphal entry,
this,
while he was seated on the Mount
of Olives, the third day after his entry into the city.
to the
That was spoken

innermost circle
to
multitude as well as to his disciples
this in the
of his
own most
earth.
trusted followers, of those to
whom
the
he was about
con-
fide the
carrying forward of the great work which he had himself com-
menced on
is
The scope
of that, which
is
more complex parable,
twofold, and
may
be thus defined.
The
multitude, and perhaps

that he
many
that
were following the Lord with true hearts, thought

to
was now
going
take his kingdom and to reign
to sit
on the throne of his father

on.
David
at
Jerusalem.
He would
teach them,
the contrary, that there

that he
must yet be a long interval ere that should be, and only after a long period return, and that not till
the
must go away,
had elapsed,
In
that period
should the powers that opposed his kingdom be effectually put down.
mean time, (and here is the point of contact between the two parables,) those who stood to him in the relation of servants and friends, were not to
be
idl}''
waiting the time of his coming back, but should seek earnestly to
forward his interests

being sure that
at his
;
according
to the
ability
which was given them>
work should
ance
enemies,
be
return he would reward each accordin g as his at which time of his return, as St. Luke, in accord-
to the plan
of his parable, relates, he would also utterly destroy his

in pieces with the rod of his
break
anger those who refused

then
is
to
bow
fold.
to
the sceptre
It is
of his love.
The
scope of /s parable
two-
addressed, in part, to that giddy light-minded multitude,

that his cause
who
were following Jesus with an expectation triumph, and who, when they should find
might, perhaps,
woulds speedily
their expectations disappointed,
Crucify him.
many of them turn against him and join in the cry, He warns them that his triumph over his enemies, though
it
not speedy, yet should be certain, even as

tains for
would be
to his
terrible
it
con-
them a double warning,

befall
that they be not offended or prevented

to
from attaching themselves yet closer
him and
;
Church by the things

they should
which should
him
at
Jerusalem
and
that, least of all,
hard.
The arguments against the identity of {Harm. Evang., c. 154, ad init.)
the
two parables are well
stated by Ger-
212
suffer themselves to be
THE TALENTS.
drawn
into the
ranks of his
foes, since these

it
were
doomed
to
an utter
this
destruction.
For the
disciples also
contains a
warning, that
long period which should intervene before his coming
again in glory and in power, was not to be for them a period of sloth
and
good
inactivity, but a time in

fidelity to their
which they would be required

:
to
show
all
absent Lord
which
fidelity
would by him be acsloth
knowledged and abundantly rewarded, even as negligence and would meet also their due recompense of reward.
Here
it
is
at
once evident how
idle the objections are
which have
lately been brought against the parable as given
by the
third Evangelist.
The
objector* imagines that he detects there, as in the case of the Mar-
riage of the King's Son, a blending together, through loose and floating
tradition, of
heterogeneous materials,
to
that in fact
we have
there, joined
in one,
what ought
be two parables, and this so awkwardly that the
joinings are
plainly discernible
the occasion of their confusion being

fact of a lord absenting himself
that they both turned
upon the common
from his home
for
a while.
He
observes that servants and citizens
stand in no relation to one another, that with the very slightest alterations,
ver. 12, 14, 15, 27,
would form a complete whole, and standing by them:
selves might be entitled the parable of the Rebellious Citizens
the re-
maining
verses would form the parable of the Pounds, which would

all
then be free from
admixture of foreign elements.

be kept in mind which this objector seems to have
But only
let that
forgotten, or never to
have perceived, that there were two groups of
hearers in different states of mind and needing different admonitions, to
whom
the
Lord addressed the parable which has been recorded

it
in St.
Luke, and
will at
once be perceived how he divided
to all, to his
own
In
disciples and to the multitude, according to their different needs.
Luke
the parable
is
of necessity more complex, as having a more comIn
plex purpose to
fulfil.
Matthew
it is
simpler
for
it is
addressed to
the disciples, or rather to the apostles alone, and

for the multitude
the parts there
meant
find
would be superfluous here, and accordingly
no
place.
To
the apostles then and to none other the parable of the Talents,
It is
"which alone concerns us now, was spoken.
needful for the right
Strauss, Lebnt Jesu,

t This view
is
v. 1, p.
675.
is little
not
new
indeed his whole book
more than a mustering up

(De Par.
J.
and
ago.
setting in array objections
which had been made, and most of them answered, long

the lack of unity in this parable, says
Ungeron
:
the
same ground of
omnium Christi parabolarum simplicitatem atque unitatem recordanti mihi Lucas visus est cum illfi simplici parabola, hie alteram similem, sed alias et aliier prolatam, in unam composuisse.
Nat., p. 130)
Itaque siniplicem apud Matthasum parabolam,et
THE TALENTS.
understanding of
its
213
in
outward circumstances that we keep

:
mind the
relation of masters and slaves in antiquity
for that
between masters and
servants, as
it
now
exists
among
us, affords
no satisfactory explanation.
The master
and
it is
of an household goin
gaway
does not leave with his servants,
foreign to all the relations between them,

j
moneys wherewith
to
trade in his absence
nor
if
he
did,
could he punish them on his return
for neglect of duty, as the slothful servant is
here punished.
But slaves
to
in antiquity
were often
master
artisans, or
it
were allowed otherwise
engage
freely in business, paying, as
sum
to their
or as
was frequently arranged, a fixed yearly here, they had money given them wherewith
to
to trade
on his account, or with which
enlarge
their business,
and
to
bring him in a share of their profits.*

thing of the sort
is
In the present instance some-
assumed, when
it
is said,
" The kingdom of heaven
is
as a
man
travelling into a
to
far
country,
delivered
them his goods."
It
own f servants and was " afar country " into which the Lord
called his
;:}:
who
Jesus Christ was about
to travel
and that his servants might be

to entrust
fur-
nished in his absence, he was about

cessors,
them, and
all their
suc-
whose
representatives
they were, with
many
excellent gifts.
was no doubt the tim^ when the goods, that is, spiritual powers and capacities, were by him most manifestly and most abundantly communicated to his servants, that they might profit withal.
The day
of Pentecost
Yet^nvas not that the first occasion when they were Lord had communicated to them much during his earthly the so given sojourn with them, (John xv. 3,) and before his ascension, (Johnxx. 22,)
(Ephes.
iv.
;
8-12.)
and from that day

has application
first
forth
he has been evermore delivering his goods
to
each successive generation of his servants.

to all
This being
all
so, the
:
parable
it
times
yet
not primarily to
persons
was
addressed to the apostles alone, and the gifts for the exercise of the
ministry, the powers

in the first place,
are called in
which Christ has given to his Church, are signified, by the committed talents. Seeing, however, that all their measure to edify one another, that all Christians have
gifts,
a spiritual vocation, and are intrusted with

vv'hich
all.
more or fewer,
is
for
they will have to render an account, the parable

too,
it
applicable to
While,
it
has relation
first to
spiritual
gifts
and capacities,
yet
has not therefore no relation
to those
other gifts and endowments,
* See Mr. Greswell's Exp. of the Far., v. 5, part 2, p. 27, seq., and the Diet,
of Gr. and
Rom.
Antt.,
s. v.
Servus, pp. 867, 873.

servants
;"
It
should not be " his
own
for there is
no emphasis here on the

ejus.
iSiov;.
It is only the
same misuse that

'iitov
in later Latin
has proprius for suus or
So Matt.
dicit,
TTJi. 5, dniiXdev ei; tov

t
dypov,
Auct. Oper. Imperf., Horn. 53:
Ad Patrem
iturus, peregre se
iturum
prop-
ter caritatem sanctorum, quos relinquebat in terris,
cum magis
peregre esset in mundo.
214
THE TALENTS.
men
as wealth, reputation, ability, which, though not in themselves spiritual,
are yet given to
that they
to
may be
turned to spiritual ends,
are
ca-
pable of being sanctified

for the
the Lord, and consecrated to his service, and

to
use or abuse of which, the possessors will have also
render an
There is, indeed, a witness for this in our English word account. " to/en<," which has come to signify any mental endowments, faculties,
or powers whatever, a use which
parable, even as
into the thoughts
it is
is
of course entirely the growth of this
a proof of the
manner
in
which
it
has worked
itself
and language of men.
But
different
men
receive these gifts in very different proportions

to
" Uiito one he gave Jive taJenls,
another two, and

It is
to
another one ;
to
every
man
according
to his
it,
several aiility.''*
not that the gifts, as Theoto the
phylact explains
were
to
each " according
measure of
his faith
and purity,"
these gifts
ral is the
;
for the faith
which
purifies is itself one of the chiefest of

to his
but
to
each according
ability,
is
inasmuch as the natu-
ground upon which the

nor bring
xii.
spiritual
superinduced, and grace
does not dissolve the groundwork of the individual character, nor abolish
all its peculiarities,
all that
are subject to
iv.
it
to
common stand-
ard
(see
Cor.
4-31.; Ephes.
16.)
The
natural gifts are
as the vessel,
according
to its
which may be large or may be small, and which receives capacity ;) but which in each case \s filled ; so that we
are not to think of him
who had
received the two talents, as incompletely

five,
furnished in comparison with him that had received the
any more
than
we
should affirm a small circle incomplete as compared with a large.
Unfitted he might be for so wide a sphere of labour, but altogether as

perfectly equipped for that to which he
versities of gifts, but the
was destined
for
" there are

is
di-
same
Spirit,"
and
as the
body
not all eye,
nor are
are
all
all in
an army generals or
captains,:}: so
neither in the
Church
of naSpirit,
furnished to be leaders and governors. Yet while

for receiving the
we speak
tural capacity being as the vessel
wine of the
we must
away,
not leave out of account, that comparative unfaithfulness, stopgift to
ping short indeed of that which would cause the

will yet
it,
be quite taken
narrow the vessel
even as
fidelity
has this tendency
to dilate
so that the person with far inferior natural gifts yet often
brings in a far more abundant harvest, than one with superior powers,
who
yet does bring in something.
* Cajetan
Disponit siquidem Deus in Ecclesia. suaviter omnia
neminem
onerat
supra vires, nulli negat
donum congraum
suis viribus.
t Jerome
Christus doctrinam Evangelicam tradidit, non pro largitale et parcitate
alteri plus, et alteri
minus tribuens, sed pro accipientium viribus
quomod6
is
et apostolus
COS qui solidum cibum capere non poterant, lacte potlsse sc

X
dicit.
See Clemens Rom. ad Corinth.,
c.
37, where this comparison
used.
THE TALENTS.
Having thus committed
unto each according
215
the talents to his servants, and divided wisely
to his several
powers, the lord, without more delay,

In the things earthly the householder's
" straightioay took his journey."

distribution of the gifts naturally
in the
and of necessity precedes his departure

;
heavenly
it is
not altogether so
the Ascension, or departure, goes

;
before Pentecost, or the distribution of gifts
yet the " straightway"
still
remains in
them was the smallest, one The following hard upon the other, however the order was reversed. three verses which follow (17-19) embrace the whole period intervenTwo of the servants, ing between the first and second coming of Christ.
full force
:
the interval between
those to
whom
the largest
sums with
that
diligence and success.
moneys have been committed, lay out those These are the representatives of all
in their
office
that are diligent
and
faithful
is this
and ministry, whatsoever

unequal sums in the same
may be.
:
There
"
variation between our parable and St. Luke's,
that here the faithful servants multiply their
proportions
He
that
had received
the Jive talents,
made them
other jive
talents" and again, " he that had received the two, he also gained other
two ;"
tions
;
while
all
there they multiply their equal
sums
in different propor-
had alike received a pound, but one gained with that pound Two most important truths are thus ten pounds, and another five. brought out, as it could not have conveniently been done in a single narration
first
by
St.
Matthew
this truth, that
according as
we have
differ
re-
ceived will
as
it
be expected from us
zeal,
and
if
this
secondly by St. Luke, that

in the
men
differ in fidelity, in
in labour, so will they
amount
"
of their spiritual gains.
But
two of the servants were thus
faithful in the things
He
that
committed to them, it was otherwise with the third ; had received one " talent, " we7it and digged in the earth, and hid
his lord's
gifts,
money "
"
an
apt image for the failing to use divinely imparted
for
Wisdom
that is hid,
and treasure that
is
hoarded up, what
Better is he that hideth his folly, than a man them both ? In St. Luke he hides (Sirach, xx. 30, 31.) that hideth his wisdom."* his pound in a napkin, but that would have been impossible with so large
profit is in
Compare Shakspeare " Heaven does with us, as we with torches do Not light them for themselves for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched
:
:
But
for fine issues
nor Nature never lends
The
But
smallest scruple of her excellence.

like
thrifty
goddess she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,
Both thanks and use."
216
a
THE TALENTS.
as a talent,
sum
^^
which
is,
therefore,
more
fitly
said to
have been con-
cealed in the earth.*
After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with
In the joyful
them.''
coming forward of
the faithful servants,

:"
we
see an
example of boldness
in the
day of judgment
they had something to

to
show, as Paul so earnestly desired that he might have, when he said

his beloved Thessalonian converts, "
What
is
our hope, or joy, or crown
of rejoicing
at his
Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ ? coming ?" (1 Thess. ii. 19 Phil. iv. 1.) In St. 2 Cor. i. 14
; ;
Matthew
the faithful
servant comes forward, saying, " Behold, I have
gained," while in St.
Luke it is, " Thy pound hath gained;" thus between them they make up the speech of St. Paul, " I yet not I, but the
grace of God that was with me." And even in St. Matthew, " I have gained " is preceded by that other word " thou deliveredst me y" it is
only thy
gift
which
I is
have so multiplied.
according
this,
In St. Matthew, as has been

five for five,
observed, the gain

two.
to the talents,
and two
is
for
Consistently with
the
commendation of the servants
express-
ed in exactly the same language, even as the reward to each is precisely to each it is said, " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,"f the same
:
that
this
is,
become a sharer of
is,
my
joy.
No
doubt the image underlying
language
that the master
celebrates his return
by a great
festi-
val, to
which each of the servants, as soon as he has rendered
his ac-
counts, and
shown
that he has
been true
It is
to
his master's interests in his
absence,
is
bidden freely
to enter.
well
circumstances the master's inviting his slave

ble, did itself constitute the act
to sit
;
known that under certain down with him at tahenceforth he was

free.ij:
of manumission
* Jerome
in a napkin
:
(Ad Bamas.) finds Hoc talentum nou

terra,
a further distinction between hiding in the earth and

est in sudario
coUigandum,
id est, delicate otioseque
tractandum, nee in
defodiendum, terrenis
scilicet cogitationibus
t Leighton's words on this entering into the joy of the Lord are beautiful
obscurandum. " It
:
is
but
little
we can
receive here,
some drops
of joy that enter into us, but there
we
shall
enter into joy, as vessels put into a sea of happiness."
Gerhard has the same thought:
Tam magnum
prehendi, ideo
in
1.
enim
erit illud
gaudium, ut non
possit in
homine concludi
vel
ab eo comintrat illud
homo
intrat in illud incomprehensibile
gaudium, non autem
hominem
velut ab
homine comprehensum
Lord: Triplex
tui.
and H. de Sto Victore (Ernd. Theol.,
3) says on this joy of the

est
est
gaudium
est
est
gaudium
affluentia,
seculi.est gau:
dium tuum,
seculi,
gaudium Domini
:
Primum
de terrenil
secundum de
bona, conscientia
tertium de seternitatis experientia.
Non
igitur
exeas in gaudium
. . .
Ad primum non remaneas in gaudio tuo, sed intrcs gaudium Domini tui homo, cum cecidit de paradiso ad secundum venire incipit, ciim per fidem Tunc autem ad tertium perveniet, cCim videndo ipsum sicuti est reconciliatus Deo.
exivit
:
in aeternum fruetur ipso.

t
See the Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Antt.,
s.
v.
Manumissio,
p.
596.
THE TALENTS.
Perhaps there
217
be here allusion to something of the kind the incorof what once he had spoken in words, " Henceforth I poration in an act
call
may
you not
xii.
servants,
;
but
have called you friends." (John xv. 15

his account,
is,
Luke
37
Rev.
iii.
20.)
But there remains one who has not yet given in has been often observed how solemn a warning there
in the fact, that
and
it
and
to
how many,
is
he
to
whom
:
only the one talent had been committed,

" So
the one
who
is
found faulty
to
since
an excuse like the following might committed

;
very easily occur

matters not
for
such
little is little
to
my
I
charge, that
it
how
administer that
at
the best
cannot do
much
God's glory ; what signifies the little, whether it be done or left unBut here we are instructed that the Lord looks for fidelity in done ?"
as well as in
little
much.*
We
can well understand

to
why
he should
have lingered
lord.
It is
to the last,
being reluctant
appear in the presence of his
true that he had not wasted his master's goods like the
Unand
just Steward, nor spent all his portion in riotous living like the Prodigal,
nor was he ten thousand talents

it is
in debt like the
Unmerciful Servant
an entire mistake
to
mix up
his case with theirs,
when
it
should be
kept entirely distinct.
The consequence
its
of such confounding his guilt
with theirs would be, that the very persons whose consciences the parable
was meant
to
reach would evade
force.
When we weave
the
meshes of the spiritual net so large,

able to slip through
:
all
but the very worst offenders are

is
and the parable
not for such, not for those that
are evidently by their lives and actions denying that they count Christ
to
be their Lord and Master
at all
it is
not for
them who thus squander

:
their talent, or
own
ped
hearts,
deny that they have ever received one the law, and their tell them sufficiently plainly of their sin and danger. But the
is for
warning we have here

for a
them who hide
their talent,
who
being equip-
sphere of activity in the kingdom of God, do yet choose, to use Bacon's words, " a goodness solitary and particular, rather than genera-
tive
and seminal."
There
is
great danger that such might deceive them-
selves, as there are so
many
temptations to a shrinking from the labour
and the
toil
involved in a diligent laying out of our talent.
There
is
show of humility in the excuses that a person so inclined would make ; as for instance, " The care of my own soul is sufficient to occupy me
wholly
that
I
;
(/
the responsibility of
it ;
any
spiritual
I
work
is
so great, so awful,
dare not undertake
while
am employed
about the souls of
others, I
may
perhaps be losing
my own."
We read repeatedly of those
* Grotius: In eo cui minimum erat concreditum negligentiae exemplum posuit

Christus, ne quia sperarct excusatum se
accepisset.
iri
ab omni labore, ideo quod non ezimia dona
15
218
in the early
THE TALENTS.
Church, who on grounds like these, persisted in refusing
called,
charges
to
which they were
and when they should have been the
salt to salt the earth,
chose rather to retire into caves and wildernesses,
forsaking their brethren,

ministries of love.*
whom
they were called so serve in the active
The warning
low after
this
then
is
addressed to such as might be tempted
to fol-
goodness solitary and particular, instead of serving their

to the will
generation according
of God.
The
root out of
which
this
mischief grows
ters,
is laid
bare in the words which this slothful servant utIt
" Lord, I kneio thee that Ihou art an hard man.''

is evil,
has
its rise,
as
almost everything else that
in a false
this
view of the character of
God.
merely
For we must not understand

for
speech as an excuse framed
the occasion, but
it is
the true out-speaking of the inmost
heart, the exact expression of the aspect in

ally regard his lord.
which the servant did actuin his lord's
The
churl accounted him churlish, thought him

forgiving
even such an one as himself: he did not believe

love,
and
in
his gracious
for
acceptance of the work with

heart,
all its faults,
which was done

please
him out of a true

his wilful
and with a sincere desire
to
him.
This was
and guilty ignorance concerning the

he was called
indeed
to serve.
true character of the master
whom
for
But
to
know
God's name
in his
is to
trust in him.
They
who undertake a
ministry
Church, or any work
him, are well aware that they shall com-
mit manifold mistakes in that ministry, which they might avoid, if they
declined that ministry altogether,
even
many
sins in handling divine
things which they might escape, if they wholly refused that charge.
* Augustine, in a sermon preached on the anniversary of his exaltation to the episcopal dignity, {Serm. 339,
c. 3,)
makes
striking use of this parable, while he is speak-
ing of the temptation, whereof he was conscious, to withdraw from the active labour in
the Church,
and
to cultivate a solitary piety
Si
non erogem,
et
pecuniam servem,
terret
me
Evangelium.
Possem enim
dicere:
Quid mihi
est tjedio esse

]
hominibus, dicere inest oneri esse ho-
iquis,
Inique agere nolite, sic agite, sic agere desistite
Quid mihi
minibus?
Accepi quomodo vivam, quomodo jussus sum, quomodo praeceptus sum, as;
signem quomodo accepi de aliis me reddere rationem quo mihi ? Nam ad islam securitatem otiosissimam nemo me vinceret terret.
nihil dulcius,
Evangelium
:
me
nihil est melius^
quam divinum
scrutari, nullo strepente,
thesaurum
dulce est,
Prsedicare, arguere, corripere, aidificare, pro unoquoque satagere,
magnum
Sed
onus,
bonum est. magEvange-
num
lium.
pondus, magnus labor.
Quis non refugiat istum laborem

:
terret
And
again {In Ev. Joh., Tract. 10)

et
Si
autem
fueris frigidus,
:
marcidus, ad te
sufficiens, et dicens in corde tuo Quid mihi est curare anima mea, ipsam integram servem Deo Eja non tibi venit in mentem servus ille qui abscondit talentum et noluit erogare 1 nunquid enim Compare what he beauaccusatus est, quia perdidit, et non quia sine lucro servavit?
solum spectans,
quasi
tibi
aliena peccata, sufficit mihi
tifully
t
says, Enar. in Ps. xcix.
and
also
De Fide
et Oper., c. 17.
all
This sense of the careful and accurate handling which
divine things require,
THE TALENTS.
But
shall those
219
who
are competently furnished and evidently called, be

in doing so
? ?
therefore justified or excused
would they
not, so
acting,
share in the condemnation of this servant
would they not
testify there-
by
that they thought of God, as he thought of his master that he was an hard * lord extreme to mark what was amiss making no allow-
ances, accepting never the will for the deed, but watching to take ad-
vantage of the least failure or mistake on the part of his servants
Nor
roll off
does the sluggard in the parable stop here.
If only he
may
a charge from himself, he cares not for affixing one to his lord.
In his speech, half cowering
and half defying, and
in
this
respect, a
wonderful picture of the sinner's bearing towards God, he shrinks not
from attributing
to
him the character of an harsh unreasonable
despot, ff
who
requires the bricks but refuses the straw, (Exod. v. 7,)
who would
reap what he has not sown, and gather whence he has not strawed.f
In these words he gives evidence that he as entirely has mistaken the
nature of the work

ter for
to
which he was
called, as the character of the
mas-
whom
it
should have been
done.:}:
In the darkness of his heart
and the exceeding gravity of a
fault therein,
though very
liable of being
pleaded as here
true,
by the slothful and the false-hearted, and ever needing, even

balanced by other thoughts concerning God,
is
when most
to
be
yet in itself an high grace, and has a

those divine things being con-
word of
its
own
to express
it,
cuAu/Jcia,
from
cv âfiffdvciv,
templated as costly yet delicate vessels, which must needs be handled with extreme
wariness and even fear.
* The
<jK\np<>i
here
is
stronger than the awrripos of

this is
Luke
;
xix.
21
that
:
word being
adtppotv Kal
sometimes used in a good sense, which

aiarnpos.
ripe, sour,
never
thus Plutarch
î>
This
last is
an epithet properly applied to

mellowness, and would find
is
fruit or
wine, which
;^;p>;oTO{,
is
crude, un.
v. 39,)
is
wanting
in
its
opposite in
to the
(Luke
(XK^npos
so the Latin austerus continually, which

epithet given to a surface
alike the asper
^TovTjpos,
opposed
dulcis.
But
an
which
is at is
once dry and hard, as through drought, involving

jiaXaKos
evil.
and the durus, and

3,
opposed to
and
vyp6;.
Nabal
is aKk-npdi xat
(1
Sam. XXV.
LXX.)
churlish
and
Terence {Adelph.,
v. 4,) unfolds
the cK\np6i,
when he
describes one as Tristis, parous, truculentus, tenax.

c.
The words
are discriminated in Titmann's Synonyms,
10.
"Strawed" does not
refer to the
strewing of the seed, for then he would but be
Rather there is a step in the process of the harvest, saying the same thing twice. " Where thou hast not strawed" or better, scattered with the fan on the barn floor,
there expectest thou to " gather" with the rake
to purge
:
as one
who
will not be at the trouble
away
12.)
the chaff, yet expects to gather in the golden grains into his store.
AitwopTTKraf, the
(Matt.
iii.
word here used, could
scarcely be applied to the
measured and orderly scattering of the sower's seeed.

ing to
fly
It is rather the dispersing,
mak37
;)
;
in every direction, as a pursuer the routed
enemy, (Luke
i.
51
Acts
v.
or as the wolf the sheep, (Matt. xxvi. 31,) or as the Prodigal his goods, (Luke xv. 13
xvi. 1
;)
or as here, the
Notionem
X
ventilandi
husbandman the chaflT. Thus rightly Schott on frumentum in arefi repositum exprimit.
which
this îcirKdpmaas
Aquinas
asserts well the true doctrine,
this servant denies
Deus
nihil
220
THE TALENTS.
he regards the work as something outward
as something to be done
for God, instead of being a work to be wrought in him, or rather, which He thought that God callhe would work in and through his servants.
ed
to
a labour, and gave no ability for the labour,

task,
it
:
that he laid
on a task,
which was a mere

of them that
V
and put no joy nor consolation into the hearts no wonder then that he should shrink from
it.
fulfilled
Thus, he goes on to say, " I was afraid ;"* he justifies the caution and timidity which he had shown, and how it was that he would attempt
nothing and venture upon nothing
lest in the
:
he feared
to trade
on that
talent,
necessary risks of business, seeking
to
gain other he might

;
lose that one,
and so enrage his master against him
even as men might
profess to fear to lay themselves out for the winning of other souls, lest,
so doing, they might
thine."'\
endanger their own,

entire
" Lo,
there thou hast that is

gifts
Here
to
it
might be asked, how could God's
be hidden, and
to
lie
yet
restored
him
since
the suffering
them
idle
is
one form of wasting them ? In reality they could not be so reIt is only that men imagine they can be given back, when they stored.
in fact
suppose that keeping the negative precepts

them, and that doing this they will restore
received them.:}:
requirit ab
is all
that
God requires of
to
him
his gifts entire, as they
homine
nisi
boiium quod ipse in nobis seminavit

:
and Augustine, putting

quod
vis.
the
same
truth in the form of a prayer
Da quod
jubes, et jube
* Hilary
afraid."
{Comm.
in Matth., in loc.) has a remarkable use of the words " /
was
It is,
he says, the voice of them that choose to abide, as the Jew, in the law
and
vice
in the spirit of bondage, shrinking from the liberty

:
and
activity of Christian ser-
Timui
te,
tanquani per reverentiam
et
metum veterum
praeceptorum usu Evan-
gelicse libertatis abstineat.
t Cocceius
Jactatio superba conservati talenti significat fiduciam et securitatem
ejus quisibi facile satisfacit.

t
See Stjicer's Thes.

tale,
s. v.
TaXavrov.
There
is
an instructive Eastern
It is
which in
its
deeper meaning runs remarka-
bly parallel to this parable.
as follows
:
There went a man from home
and
to his
neighbours twaia
He
gave, to keep for him, two sacks of golden grain.

in his cellar
Deep
one the precious charge concealed
And
forth the other went,
and strewed
the
it
in his field. his

it
The man
returns at last
it
;
asks of
same
; ;
first
sack
" Here take
'tis
the
thou hast
safely back."
Unharmed
it
shows without
but
His sack's recesses, corn there finds he
when he would explore" now no more

:
gH
One half of what was there proves rotten and decayed. Upon the other half have worm and mildew preyed. The putrid heap to him in ire he doth return, Then of the other asks, " Where is my sack of corn ?" Who answered," Come with me and see how it has sped" And took and showed him fields with waving harvests spread.
THE TALENTS.
221
But his lord answers him on his own grounds, and making his own mouth condemn him (Job. xv. 6 2 Sam. i. 16 ;) nor does he take the trouble to dispute or deny the truth of the character which his servant
;
;
had given him:

his
"Thou
that he defended himself
by calumniating
wicked and slothful servant ;"'' wicked," in his lord, and " slothful,'' as
that
whole conduct has shown, " ihou knewest
ed not, and gather where
I had
not strawed ;
that
I reap where I sowis, Be it so, grant
me
to
be such as thou describest, severe and exacting, yet even then

oughtest to have done
thou art not cleared, for thou
me
justice
still
and there was a safe way, by which thou mightest have done
with
little
this,
or no peril to thyself j and thereby have obtained for me, if
not the large gains, which were possible through some bolder course,
yet something, some small but certain return for

oughtest, therefore, to have put
my
monies
Thou
my money
to the
exchangers, and then at
my
the
coming I should have received mine own with usury."*
This putting
:
money
to the
exchangers, Olshausen ingeniously explains
"
Those
timid natures which are not suited to independent labour in the king-
dom
of God, are here counselled at least to attach themselves to other
stronger characters, under whose leading they

to the
may
lay out their gifts
service of the Church. "f
This explanation has the advantage
Then cheerfully the man laughed out and cried, " This one Had insight, to make up for the other that had none. The letter he observed, but thou the precept's sense, And thus to thee and me shall profit grow from hence
;
In harvest thou shall
fill
two sacks of corn

full for
for
me,
The
quadam
residue of right remains in
thee."
* EOi/ rd/cM, with increase.
So fenus
been,
is
explained by Varro, a fetu et quasi a felura
pecuniae parientis atque increscentis.
gains even in this
way might have
To estimate how great the master's we must keep in mind the high rates of intes. v.
rest paid in antiquity. p.
See the Diet, of Gr. and Eom. Antt.,

the bankers of antiquity.
:
Interest of
Money,
523
and see
also the lively chapter in Becker's Charikles, v. 1, p. 237, for a graphic

TfiairE^Trai,
description of the
t Cajetan has nearly the same explanation

fuit uti
Intendit per hoc, quod
si
non ausus
dono Dei
in actionibus multi periculi, uti
tamen debuit
illo, in
actionibus in qui-
bus est lucrum
planation of this giving the

business
me
this
Teelman {Comm. in Luc. xvi.) has a curious exmoney to the Tpairci^Xrai, starting from the notion that the " If you thought of these money-changers was in itself and necessarily unfair unfair man, why were you not consistent? why did you not seek for me the
parvo periculo.
;
cum
gains which you must then have supposed would have been welcome to
me 1"
not
saying
this as
though he would have had him so

inconsistent with his
to
have done, but only convicting
him of conduct
whether
own
assertions.
It is
an interesting question,
the saying so often
quoted in the early Church as our Lord's, and not any
where
has
its
to be
found in the
New
Testament, VivtaOt
66Ktiioi
it
(orKoAoi, or ^pdvi/ôi)
rpaircC^lTai,
origin here.
Many
have thought they found
in this passage, but
it is
difficult
222
that
it
THE TALENTS.
makes
these words not merely useful to add vivacity to the nar-
rative,
as the natural
exclamation of an offended master,
but
gives
them likewise a
spiritual significance,
which
is
not generally sought in
if they yield it easily and naturally, must by no means be rejected. Certainly this meaning is better than that which Jerome proposes, that the money-changers are believers in general, to whom the intrusted word of grace should have been committed, that they, trying it, and rejecting any erroneous doctrine which might be admingled with it, but holding fast what was good, might be enriched with the knowledge of God. Such can hardly be the meaning, for that is the very thing which the servant ought to have done in the first in-
them, but which,
stance, boldly to have laid out his gift for the profit and edification of his
brethren
while this of committing the talent

to
to the
money-changers
is
only the alternative proposed
him, in case he liad shrunk from that
other and more excellent way.
And
hereupon, his doom
who
is
neither in one
;
way
or the other had

first,
sought his master's interests,
pronounced
it
of the talent which he had suffered

talent from
to lie idle,
" Take,
is
consists
in the loss
therefore, the
xi. 29.
him."*
We
have here a limitation of Rom.
This
deprivation
may
be considered partly as the directly penal, and partly
as the natural consequence of his sloth.
For there
and
this
analogy be-
tween the course of things

as a limb
in the natural
in the spiritual world, that

its
which
is
never called into exercise loses
strength by de-
to see
on what ground, except that the word

is
TpairsîTai
here occurs.
exhortation
evidently this: Be as experienced money-changers,
The point who readily
of that
distin-
guish the good from the bad coin, receiving the one but rejecting the other.
this parable, there is
Now
in
no
direct or indirect
lies
comparison of the disciples with moneyits
changers, and such an exhortation
wholly aloof from
aim and scope.

v. Tpa-ntîrris,)
The
words can as
this view.
;
little
be said so be implicitly contained in the parable, as they can to be

it is
plainly read in the text, though
true that Suicer (Thes.,
s.
defends
The precept would be much more easily deduced from 1 Thess. v. 21, 22 even as we find yiv, 66k. rparr. sometimes called an apostolic saying, attributed by many of the Fathers not to the Lord but to one of his apostles, or to St. Paul by name,
and by some, indeed, even inserted before
and the whole question
Krit-, for 183G, p. 179.
is
this
very passage,
for
examples, see Suicer

Theol. Stud,
thoroughly discussed by Hansel, in the
und
v.
He
maintains
this latter origin of the
words.
See also Co1,
TELERii Fait. Apostol.,\.

p. 930.
fftarfii,
1, p.
249, and the Annott. in iJusei., Oxford, 1842,

interest here, TpaTrtîr/jj is the fitter
;
There being mention of
word than koWv

xi.
which, however, rightly finds place. Matt. xxi. 12
Mark
15.
Jerome
(Comm.
word.
*
in Matth. xxi. 12, 13,) has a singular, but erroneous derivation of the last
Augustine asks here {Enarr. in Fs. xxxviii. 4)

luxuria consumscrunt,
si
Quid exspectare debent, qui

sewaverunt?
cum
damnatur qui cum

ex pccna
pigri.
pigritiii
And
again,
Intelligatur poena interversoris
THE TALENTS.
grees
223
its
exercised, fade and
muscles and sinews disappear, even so the gifts of God, un" From him that hath not shall he taken fail from us
:
away even
is
that lohich he hath."*
And on
the other contrary, as the limb
not
wasted by strenuous exertion,

is
:
but rather
by
it
nerved
;
and
strengthened, not otherwise

multiplied by being laid out
it
also with the gifts of
God
they are
" Unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance." " The earth which bringeth forth herbs
meet
for
them by whom
is it
;
it is
dressed, receiveth blessing," that
is,
a far-
ther blessing, the gift of a continued fruitfulness " from God."

vi. 7.)
(Heb.
Nor
merely that the one receives more, and the other loses
;
what he had
he
is
but that very gift which the one loses the other receives
;
enriched with a talent taken from the other
while on his part,

;
another takes his crown.
We
see this continually
one by the Provi-
dence of God steps

left
into the place
and the opportunities which another

(1
unused, and so has forfeited.
Sam. xv. 28.)

its
For
plete
this
taking
away
of the unused talent which will find
comnot
consummation
at
at the
day of judgment, yet
is is
also in this present

it is
time continually going forward.
And
little,
herein
mercy, that
till
done
there
all
once, but by
little
and
so that
:
all
is
withdrawn,
is still
the opportunity of recovering all

is
at
some warning to hold fast what still en the things which remain that are ready to die."
drawal, there
each successive withis left, " to strengthIt is
quite true that
^Chrysostom (De
for ever in
Christ.
set forth that the grace
Free, Con. Anom., 10) has two other comparisons, to unused will quickly depart: " For as the corn, if it be let lie
;
the barns,
cast into
is
consumed, being devoured of the worm

field, is
but
if it is
brought
forth
and
if it
the
multiplied and renewed again
so also the spiritual

into
word,
be evermore shut up within the soul, being
consumed and eaten

if,
by
envy and
sloth,
and decay,
is
quickly extinguished
but,
is
as on a fertile
field, it is
scattered on the souls of the brethren, the treasure

it,
multiplied to
them
is
that receive
and
to
him
that possessed
it
and as a fountain
word of
it,
from which water

;
continually
drawn
forth,
forth, is
thereby rather purified, and bubbles up the more

so the spiritual gift and
doctrine, if
it
but being stanched
fails altogether,
be continually
;
drawn
and
if
who
will has liberty to share

spirit,
rises
up the more
but
if restrained
by envy and a grudging
diminishes, and at last perishes altogether."
Augustine
Ap-
too, (or Caesarius, as the Benedictine editors affirm,
August. 0pp.,
in
v. 5, p. 81,
pendix) has an admirable discourse on the
manner
which
It
gifts
is
multiply through
being imparted, and diminish through being withholden.

cation of the story of the
throughout an appli-
widow
oil
(2 Kin. iv.)
whose two sons Elisha redeemed from

in her single vessel so long as she pro-
bondage, by multiplying the
which she had

to
vided other vessels into which
pour
it,
but which,
stopped:
when
she had no more, at once

Sic,
et ait Scriptura stetisse
oleum, posteaquam ubi poneret, non invenit.
dilectissimi fratres, tandiu caritas augetur

tria
aliis
quandiu
tribuitur.
Et ideo etiam ex indus-
debemus vasa
quajrere, ubi
oleum possumus infundere, quia probavimus quod
dum
infundimus, plus habemus.
Vasa
carl talis,
homines
sunt.
224
at
THE TALENTS.
efFort
each successive stage of the decline, the
required for this

this, is to
is
greater,
that sin
is
the strength for

sin, that
it
it
less
but to complain of
it
;
complain
has any curse with
and however
this is the
till
mournful
truth, yet, at the

is
same
lime,
it
remains always possible,
the last spark
extinguished, to blow up that spark again into a flame
even the sense of the increasing darkness

arouse the
may
But
be that which shall
man
to a serious sense of his
danger, and to the need of an

this servant
earnest revival of God's
work
in his soul.
till it
had never
irrevo-
awoke
cably
to the
lost
;
sense of his danger

it is
was
too late,
till
all
was
and now
said, not
merely that he shall
forfeit his talent,

:
but yet further, " Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness
there shall be wailing
and gnashing of teeth. ^'

to
While there
is light
and
joy and feasting within,
celebrate the master's return, the darkness
without shall be his portion.
The comparison
and those which led
of the causes which led to this servant's exclusion,

to the exclusion of the foolish virgins, is full
all
;
of im-
portant instruction for
the virgins erred through a vain over-confi-
dence, this servant through an under-confidence that
was equally vain

Thus, as
and
sinful.
They were
overbold, he
was
not bold enough.

to
in a chart, the
two temptations, as regards our relation

faith is in
service,
it
the
two opposing rocks on which

too
;
God and his danger of making

Those
shipwreck, are laid down for us, that

virgins thought
it
we may
to
it
avoid them both.
easy a thing
serve the Lord,
this servant
thought
too
hard
they esteemed
but as the going forth to a ^sti-
val which should presently begin, he as an hard, dreary, insupportable
work
for a thankless master.
In them,
we have
this
:
the perils that beset the
sanguine, in him the melancholic, complexion.

tives of a class
They were
" Strait
is
representa-
needing such warnings as

life,
the gate, and

find
it
narrow
(Matt.
is
the way, that leadeth unto
and few there be that
j"
vii.
14
;)
ii.
"
Work
;)
bling ;" (Phil.
12
"
own salvation with fear and tremIf any man will come after me, let him deny
out your
himself." (Matt. xvi. 24.)
need
to
to
be reminded
"
He was representative of a class that would Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again
fear;" (Rom. viii. 15;) "Ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and darkness, and tempest ;
unto the city of the living God,
and
to Jesus, the
Mediator of the
speaketh
better
new
Covenant, and
to
tlie
blood of sprinkling,
(Ileb. xii. 18, 22, 24.)
that
things than that of Abel."
THE SEED GROWING SECRETLY.
225
PARAELE XV.

Mark
This
is
iv.
26-29.
the only parable

it
which
is
peculiar to St. Mark.

it
Like that of
and will
it
the Leaven, of which

invisible
seems
to
occupy the place,
declares the secret
energy of the divine word,
that
it
has
life in itself,
;
unfold itself according to the law of
its
own being
it
and besides what
has in
common
with that parable, declares further, that this word of the

it
kingdom has
that in
which
will allow
safely to be left to itself.

:
The main
difficulty in the parable is the following
Whom
shall
we
understand by the
man
himself, or
?
man casting seed in the ground ? is it those who in subordination to him declare
the
Son of
the Gospel
There are embarrassments attending either explanation. If we say that the Lord points to himself as the sower of the seed, how then shall we explain ver. 27 ? it cannot be said of him that he knows not how * the seed sown in the hearts of his people springs and grows up ; since it is only his continual presence by his Spirit in their hearts which causes it to grow at all. Neither can he fitly be compared to a sower who, having scattered his seed, goes his way and occupies
of the kingdom
himself in other business, feeling that
it
lies
henceforth beyond the sphere

it
of his power to further the prosperity of the seed, but that

to itself,
must be
left
and
its
own
is
indwelling powers, and that his part will not begin
again
till
the time of the harvest has
come round. This
is
no
fit
descrip-
tion of him,
who
not merely the author and finisher of our faith, but

it
who
also conducts
through
all its
intermediate stages
it
and without
unable
to
whose blessing and
active co-operation
would be
totally
make
any, even the slightest, progress.

is
Or on
the other hand, shall
we
say that the sower of the seed
here one of the inferior ministers and

is
messengers of the
truth,
and that the purpose of the parable

life,
to
teach
such, that after the word of
of which they are bearers, has found

to its
place in any heart, they

*
may
be of good confidence, trusting
own
It is
a poor
way
to get out of this difficulty to

it
say with Erasmus, that," he know-
eth not how," ought rather to be, "
knoweth not how,"
that
is,
the seed
it
knoweth
not
how
it
grows
itself; since,
as no one could have supposed that
did,
who would
think of denying
it 1
226
powers
of that
THE SEED GROWING SECRETLY.*

to unfold itself, for
it
has a
life
of
its
own,
a
life
life
independent of
him who may have been

life,
the original instrument for the communication

it is
even as a
child, after
born, has a
it
no longer depend?
ent on that of the parents, from which yet
was
originally derived
But
ty
;
then, with this explanation, there is another and not slighter difficulfor at ver.
29
it is
said, "
when
the fruit is hr ought forth, imviediately

'^
he " (the same person clearly because the harvest

is
who sowed the seed) come." Of whom can it be

when they
the
putteth in the sickle,
said, save of the
Son
of -man, the Lord of the harvest, that he putteth in the sickle,

gathereth his people,
finished their course,
are ripe for glory,
work of faith has been accomplished in their hearts, into everlasting habitations ? So that the perplexity is this, If we say that the Lord means himself by the principal personage in the parable, then something is attributed to him which seems unworthy of him, less than to him rightly appertains ; while if, on the other hand, we take him to mean those that, in subordination to himself, are bearers
when
when
that he
they have
of his word, then something more, an higher prerogative, as
it
would
seem,
only
is
attributed, than
can be admitted
to
belong rightly
to
any, save
to
him.*
cannot see any perfectly satisfactory

It
way
of escape
from
this perplexity.
will hardly do to say, for the purpose of

first
evading
the embarrassments which beset the
explanation, that the circum-
stances mentioned at ver. 27, are not to be pressed, and that they belong,
not to the body
itself,
but only to the drapery, of the parable
for clear-
ly there,
in
the sower absenting himself after he has committed the

its
seed to the ground, and in
growing without him,

altogether dark.
is
the very point
and moral of the whole, and

out of
its
to strike out that,

it
would be as the striking

will yet take
right eye, leaving
Not admitting then

to the
this too
convenient explanation,
first
the parable as having reference in the
place, though not exclusively,
Lord himself, the
greiit
Sower of the
seed, and
it
will then
remain
to see
how
far the
acknowledged
It
difficulties are
:
ed or mitigated.
if a
commences thus
" So
capable of being remov-
is the
kingdom of God, as
man
should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night
and
after
day.'^
By
these last words
it is
agreed among interpreters,
and new, almost without exception,

ness
:*
old
that is signified not his carefulness
having sown the seed, but his absence of such an after-carefulhe does not think
it
necessary
to
keep watch over his seed after
It
would be unjust
to deprive Strauss
(Leben Jesu,
it is
v.
1, p.
GG4) of the glory of
his theory concerning this parable,
namely, that
another and imperfect version

!
of that of the Tares, only with the circumstance of the tares left out
t
So Pole {Synops.,
in loc.) in a passage
woven out
of several conmmentators

it
227
has been cast on the ground, but he sleeps securely by night, and by
rises
day he
and goes about his ordinary business, leaving with
full
con-
fidence the seed to itself; which meanwhile " should spring

up, he knoweth not how.'"
and grow
These words have no
difficulty,
trary, are full of most important instruction,
on the conteachers in
in the
so long as
we apply them,
word
as no doubt
his
Church.
we fairly may, to those who under Christ are They are here implicitly bidden to have faith
which they preach,
in
the seed
which they sow,
for
it is
the seed of
God
its
when
it
has found place in an heart, they are not to be tormented

they
with anxiety concerning the final issue, but rather to have confidence in
indwelling power and might,* not supposing that
it is
who
are
to
keep
it
alive,
and that
it
can only
live
through them
for this of
main-
taining
it.
its life is
God's part and not
theirs,
and he undertakes
to fulfil
They
are instructed also to rest satisfied that the seed should

:
grow
and spring up without their knowing exactly how

searching at
its
let
them not be
roots to see
how they have stricken

life
into the soil, nor seek
prematurely to anticipate the shooting of the blade, or the forming of the

corn in the ear
heart
is
;
for the
mystery of the
to
of
God
in
any and
its
in
every
unfathomable,
any attempt
way,
is
determine that
course shall
It
be
this
way, or
its
shall be that
only mischievous.
the
has a law,
indeed, for
orderly development,
^'Jirst
is
Made, then the ear, then

;
the full corn in the ear,'' but that
law
hidden
and as manifold as are

the messengers of the
the works of
God
in nature, so that
they never exactly repeat themselves,
so manifold also are they in grace.
Therefore
let
Gospel be content that the divine word should grow in a mysterious man-
which the processes are hidden from them, and believing that it is a Divine power and not a human, let them be of good courage concerning the issue, and having sown the seed, commit the rest to God
ner, and one of
in faith, being confident that
he will bring his
own work
to perfection.
Semente
facta transigit securus noctes et dies,

vitae
segetem Deo committens, nee dubitans

only interpreter that
I
quin germinet, ipse agens alia

takes an opposite view,
is
munia.
The
know, who
will the
Theophylact,
who
understrnds the rising night and day to
mark
the continual watchfulness of Christ over his Church.
But what then
sleeping
mean ?
and, moreover, this explanation goes directly contrary to the whole

of the parable.
aim and purpose

exclusively,
* Calvin brings forward this side of the truth, though an important one, yet too
when he
thus explains the parable
Sermonem ad
verbi ministros dirigit,
ne
frigidius
muneri suo incumbant quia non statim
laboris fructus apparet.

in
Ergo
i!lis
agricolas ad
imitandum proponit, qui sub spe metendi semen
terram projiciuntj
neque anxia inquietudine torquentur, sed eunt cubitum

intenti sunt quotidiano labori, et se
et surgunt,
hoc
est,
pro more
nocturna quiete reficiunt, donee tandem suo tem-
pore matureseat seges.
Ergo quamvis verbi semen ad tempus sufTocatum lateat, jubet tamen Christus bono animo esse pios doctores, ne diffidentia illis alacritatem minuat.
228

this is not
Of course
it is
meant as though they are not

their instrumentality
which has been through

the rain, and sun, and
to follow up the work commenced. For, as when
said " the earth hringeih forth fruit of herself,'' this does not exclude
all
other favorable influences, so neither,

in
when
own,
we say
is
it,
it
that the seed of
God implanted
it
any heart has
life
of
its
hereby implied that
will not require the nourishment suitable for
it is affirmed that it will require it ; were it a dead thing would require nothing of the kind, but because it is living, it has need of that whereon it may feed. But then it is a different thing to impart it
nay, rather
and
to
life,
impart the sustenance for

it is
life
this latter the
Church has still

life
to
do for her children, but then
in faith that they
have a
of their
own once
given, and continually

to
maintained from on high, by which
they can assimilate
themselves this spiritual food provided for them,

it.
and draw nutriment from
But
it still
remains
to consider, in
what sense
that
which
is
said of
leaving the seed to itself can be affirmed of Christ.

this explanation
Olshausen suggests
true, he says, that
its
of the difficulties above noted.

life
It is
the inner spiritual
of
men
is
never
in
any stage of
development
without the care and watchfulness of the Lord

that
life
:
who
life,
first
communicated
is is
yet are there two

;
moments when he may be
said especially to
visit the soul
at the
beginning of the spiritual
which
the seed-
time, and again
when he
takes his people to himself, which

lies
their time
of harvest.*
the
Between these times,
a period in which the work of
Lord
is
going forward without any such manifest interpositions on

his Spirit,
his part
not indeed without the daily supply of

when we make
and the daily
ordering of his providence, but so as that he does not put
to his
hand so
plainly and immediately as at those two cardinal moments.

difficulty will be slighter
And
the
as
application of the parable,
undoubtedly
we
are bound to do,
to the
growth and progress of the uni-
versal Church, and not only to that of the individual soul.

at his first
The Lord
in the
coming
in the flesh
sowed the word of the kingdom
world, planted a Church therein, which having done he withdrew him-
We
may compare Job

God
shall not die
v.
26
"
Thou
shalt
come
to thy
grave in a
it is
full
age, like
as a shock of corn cometh in in his season."
There, however,
rather said, that the

till
favoured of
till
they have
known
the fulness of earthly blessing,
they have reached Abraham's " good old age," and

sively,) retire as satisfied guests
(if
one
may
use the
image not
offen-
from
life's feast.
But in our parable, consistently with

it is
the higher dispensation which looks to higher blessings,

faithful are not
rather affirmed, that the
taken
away while
yet the
work of grace
that
it is
is
incomplete in them, while

is
yet Christ
is
not fully formed in them, that in this respect there

life,
a provident love
ordering their death as well as their
only "
when
the fruit is brought
forth," that Christ " putteth in the sickle.''

self
;
229
all
the heavens received
him
till
the time of the
consummation of
things.
ears, "
Many
and
many
a time since then the cry has ascended in his
that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest often
it
come
down
!"
has seemed
to
man
as though the
hour of interference
at the point to
it,
had arrived, as though his Church were at its last gasp, die, as though its enemies were about to prevail against
guish
it
and
to extin-
for ever, unless
he appeared for
its
deliverance.
Yet he has not
come
his
forth,
he has
left it to
surmount
its
obstacles, not indeed without
mighty help, but without his
visible interference.
He
has
left
the
divine seed, the plant which he has planted, to
grow on by night and by

has borne and brought
day, through storm and through sunshine, increasing secretly with the
increase of
to
God
and will
let
it
so continue,
till it
maturity
all its
appointed
fruit.
And
only then,
when
the harvest of
the world
will he
sickle,
is ripe,
when
the
number of
his elect people is accomplished,
again the second time appear unto salvation, thrusting in his
and reaping the earth, and gathering the wheat into his barns.*
of interpreting the parable altogether, and taking
at
it
The convenience
in its
whole object and aim

to
a single, view, has caused one or two less

it
important circumstances
eth forth fruit of herself "
be passed over, which yet
might be well
not to leave quite without notice.

it
When
it is
said that " the earth hringit is
may
excite surprise that

itself;
not rather said,
The seed groweth and springeth up of

ing, is the doctrine
for that, strictly speak:
which the Lord
is
now
it is
teaching
and
if the earth
be
here, as
it
must
is
be, the heart of
man,
not there, but in the word of

resides.
God which
sower,
sown
there, that the living
power
But the Lord's
object, in using the expression,! is pointedly to

at least
exclude the agency of the
a continuous agency on his part of the same kind as he

first,
exercises at the
and
this
done he
is
not careful for more.
The
three stages of spiritual growth implied in " the blade," "the ear," and
* Grotius
Sensus mihi videtur esse perspicuus
Christum a facta semente ad

one
messis lempus agro aspectabiliter non adfuturum.

t AvTOjiarr).
The Word,
Cf
derived from airoj, and the obsolete
^âcj,
desidero,
is
of singular fitness and beauty.
Elsewhere
it
occurs but once in the
New
Testament.
(Acts
xii.
10.
Josh. vi. 5,
LXX.)
It is
often used by classic authors to describe
the spontaneous bringing forth of the earth in the golden age, during the paradisaical
state anterior to the
change marked Gen.

the avTOjuaTn
yi?
iii.
17.
Yet here
yij
it is
not exactly correct to
make, as has been done,

but,
dKanaros
of Sophocles, Antig., 339; for

forth without labour,
leaving out of account that that does
mean
the earth
it
which brings
is
which
is
never weary of bringing forth,

soil
besides
not the notion of previous

of ulterior carefulness.
labour bestowed on the
which
is
here excluded
but
In
the next verse, iavrdv must be supplied after TrapaSw.
Virgil will then have exactly the
same idiom
Multa adeo gelida melius
se nocte dederunt.
230
THE TWO DEBTORS.
" the full corn in the ear," suggest a comparison of this passage with such
as 1 John
ii.
12-14, where the apostle
in like
manner divides
the faithful
into " little children," "
young men," and "
fathers," evidently accord-
ing to the different degrees of progress which they have

ritua
llife.
made
15
in the spi;
With
I
ver.
29 we may compare Rev.
xiv. 14,
and the
satis-
comparison supplies an additional reason

fied
why we
should not rest
with the application of the parable to any less than the Son of
himself,
" And
man
looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud
one
sat, like
unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown,

sickle.
and
in his
hand a sharp
and reap
is
And
him
is
another angel
came
out of the
temple, crying with a loud voice to

in thy sickle
:
that sat on the cloud.

for thee to
Thrust
;
for the
time
come
reap
for the
harvest of the earth
ripe"
and
the entire parable gives the
same en-
couragement which
St.
Peter means to give,
when he
liveth
addresses the
faithful in Christ Jesus, as "
being born again not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible, by the word of

ever," and that whole passage (1
God which PeL i. 23-25)

considering.
and abideth
for
supplies a parallel than
which no apter could be found

parable which
in the entire circle of Scripture for the
we have been now
PARABLE
XVI.
THE TWO DEBTORS.

Luke
vii.
41-43.
We
to
may
affirm with tolerable certainty that the
two
first
Evangelists
and the
last, in all their relations
of our blessed Lord's anointing, refer

;
one and the same event.
(Matt. xxvi. 7
Mark xiv.
John
xii. 3.)
But the question whether

the
St.
Luke
narrates the
same circumstance, and
which was a sinner " be Mary the sister of Lazarus, which then must follow, is more difficult, and has been the subject of much variety of opinion from the earliest times in the Church, The
woman
here,
'^
* This passage also shows us that ipinavov

the whole,
is
not here, as so
many
say, a part of
and in place of Oeptards. There is no argument for this to be derived from the word dnoaTiWu here, which is not stronger than the Ticfu/zov there, where yet it is plain that the Lord is imagined as in his own person the reaper ; and compare Joel
iii.
13,
LXX.,
cânoareiXaTe SpiKava,
So
in Latin, immittere falcem.
THE TWO DEBTORS.

main arguments
for the identity of all the relations are, first, the
vii.
231
name
Simon, as that of the giver of the feast in one place, (Luke
40,) and
most probably so in the other, in which he appears as the master of the (Matt. xxvi. 6 ;) secondly, the seeming unhouse where it was given
;
likelihood that twice the
Lord should have been honoured
in so
very unit
usual a manner; and thirdly, the strange coincidence,
as
would
otherwise be, that in each case there should have been on the part of
some present a misinterpretation of the thing done, an offence taken. To these arguments, however, it may be answered that the name Simon was of much too frequent use among the Jews for any stress to be
laid
feet
upon the sameness of the name.
Again, that the anointing of the
with odours or with ointments, though not so
common
as the anoint-
ing of the head, yet
was not
in itself
something without precedent,* the
only remarkable coincidence here being, that Mary the sister of Lazarus, and the woman " which was a sinner," should have each wiped the
feet of the
Lord with
the hairs of her head.
(Luke
to
vii.
38
John
to the
xii. 3.)
Now
if this
had been any merely fantastic honour paid
Lord,
which
to offer
would scarcely have occurred

it
more persons than one,

and
we might
repeated
love,
;
well wonder to find
twice, and on two independent occasions,
but
;
take
it
as an expression of homage, of reverence

rise out of the deepest
its
such as would naturally

heart,
and truest feelings

(see 1 Cor. xi.
chiefest
of the human And such it is
and then
recurrence
is
no wise wonderful.
in the hair is the glory of the
woman,
15,) long beautiful tresses having evermore been held as her
adornment
honour,
;]"
they are in the
human
person highest in place and in

feet are lowest in
while
on the contrary the
both.
What
* Thus Curtius of the Indian monarchs

tur pedes,
(1.
8, c. 9)
Demtis
soleis odoribus illinun-
and Plutarch makes mention, though on a very peculiar occasion, of wine

for this purpose.
and sweet-smelling essences as used

428.)
(Becker's Charikles,
v. 1, p.
The custom
by
of having the sandals taken off by those in attendance before meals,

service of the
which would render the

ly alluded to
woman
easy and natural to be done,

:
is
frequent-
classic writers.
Thus Terence
Adcurrunt
Inde
servi, soccos detrahunt,
alii festinare,
;
lectos sternere,
Ccenam apparare
and
in all the ancient bas-reliefs
and pictures
illustrative of the subject,
we
see the
a,
guests reclining with their feet bare.
Eom.
Antt.,
v.
Coena,
t
p. 253.)
So
the Latin poet
Quod primum formcc decus

in profane history.
est,
cecidere capilli.
And
:
of
nearly similar uses of the hair in extreme humiliation and deprecation of the divine
anger
we have abundant examples

1.
Thus Livy,
I.
3, c. 7
Stratae
Cf.
passim matres crinibus templa verrentes veniara irarum caelestium exposcunt.

Polybius,
9, c. 6.
232
THE TWO DEBTORS.
then was this service, but the outward expression, and incorporation in
act, of the inward truth, that the highest and chiefest of man's honour and glory and beauty were lower and meaner than the lowest that
an
pertained to the Son of God
that they only found their true place
acknowledging
their subjection
and doing service
to
him
when And what
wonder
the
that the Lord,
human
heart,
who called out all that was deepest and truest in who awoke in it, as none else might ever do, feelings
honour?
of the warmest love and profoundest reverence, should twice* have
been the object of
this
Yet was
it
an honour,
it
we may
observe,
with some differences in the motives which called

case of
forth.
Once, in the
Mary
the sister of Lazarus, the immediately impelling cause
was
nal
to
intense gratitude,
life to herself,
she had found the words of Christ words of

his gifts to her
eter-
and he had crowned
by giving back
whom she now beheld restored to life and pound of ointment "very costly"-]- which she brought, was a thank-offering from her, and as less of shame was mingled in her feelings, she anointed both her Lord's feet and also his head.
her a beloved brother,
health before her; the
Jesus,
But what brought this woman with the alabaster box of ointment to was the earnest yearning after the forgiveness of her sins, and she, in her deep shame and abasement of soul before him, presumed not to approach him nearer than to anoint his feet only, standing the and kissing them with her lips, and wiping with the while behind him
;
hair of her head, she realized, as
it
were, in an outward
act, the to
bidding
of St. Paul, " as ye have yielded your members servants
uncleanness
ser-
and
to
iniquity unto iniquity
even so now yield your members
vants to righteousness unto holiness."

third
this in
(Rom.
vi.
19.)
And
to the
argument
it
may
be answered, that though the two events have
common,
that there
was on each occasion an offence taken, yet

In the one case
it is
beyond
ples,
this there is nothing similar.

is
the Pharisee,
the giver of the feast, that
offended
and mainly Judas

not
so
because the Lord's conduct seems inconsistent with his reputation

holiness
Judas, but
again,
is
in the other
is
some of
the disci-
the Pharisee
offended with the Lord

;
much
with him, as with the
woman
the Pharisee,
for
Judas, as
well known, from a yet
meaner and baser

is
motive of covetoizsness.
* Here, as in so
fore
To
all
which
it
may
be added, that there
many
other places, Strauss {Leben Jesu, v.
1, p.
782) like one bepurpose

is
him, murmurs against the evangelical history, crying, "
To what
this
waste 1" as though that history could not but be wrong which was thus prodigal in
relating honours done to the Saviour.
t Gregory the Great, applying the " very costly" to this history, says beautifully
{Horn. 33 in Evang.)
Consideravit quid
fecit, et
nolait moderari quid faceret.
The
whole discourse
is full
of beauty.
THE TWO DEBTORS.

nothing to
circle
233
of the happy family
testiit
make
it
the least probable, that the

to
Mary
title
it
in Bethany,*
whom
the
Lord bears such honourable

to
mony, had ever been aforetime one
whom
;
the
of *?!rtner,"f as
is
here meant, could have been applied
and, as
at the
has been ingeniously
observed, with the risen Lazarus sitting
table,
even
this
Pharisee
would hardly have so rapidly drawn

mission and character of his guest.
his conclusion against the divine
These arguments appear
so convincing, that one
is
surprised to find
first
how much
the
fluctuation of opinion there has been from the very
in
the Church, concerning the relation of these histories one to another,
Greek Fathers generally distinguishing them the Latin, for the This last part, seeing in them hut one and the same history. opinion however finally prevailed, and was long almost the universal one in the Church, that is, from the time of Gregory the Great, who threw Then, all his weight into this scale,:}: until the times of the Reformation.
most
*
Ef/ii/^ xal
anovSaia, a3 a
t "
Which was
to,
a sinner,"
Greek Father entitles her. must then mean, " which had been a
to
sinner," that
is,
in
former times, but had long since been brought
repentance and chosen the better part,
and returned
tory
and been received back
into, the
its
it
bosom of her family

for his burial.
even as the his-
must be
related here altogether out of
place, for the anointing by
Mary took
place immediately before the Lord's death,
was
(Matt. xxvi. 12.)
Many
do thus understand the words

;
to refer to sins long
ago committed, even as they

is
had been long ago forsaken
as for instance, Grolius,
who
partly
moved
thereto by
I
the necessities of his harmony, which admits but one anointing, and partly,
should
imagine, also by his fear of antinomian tendencies in the other interpretation
for that
he was in
this respect
somewhat
afraid of the Gospel of the

sufficient
sin, for
grace of God, his
Com-
mentary on the Romans gives
evidence
even as the same fear makes
another expositor affirm, that her
which she was thus spoken of as a sinner,

of adorning her person
the
;
was not more than that she was too fond not allow Rahab to have been, at least in
but only the keeper of a lodging-house.
just as others
will
common sense of the term, a -nopfr] at all, But how much does that view maintained by
long since returned to the paths of piety and
Grotius weaken the moral effect of the whole scene, besides being opposed to the plain
sense of the words
holiness,
it is little
;
if
the
woman had
likely that
even the Pharisee would have been so vehemently offend-
"for she
life,
ed at the gracious reception which she found, or would have spoken of her as he does, should rather consider this as the turning moment of her is a sinner."
We
and
it
is
evident that Augustine (Serm. 99) so considered

ut rediret
it,
for
he says of her
ut rediret sana.
Accessit ad
Dominum immunda
munda,
accessit
aegra
Moreover
in that other case, the absolving words,
"Thy
sins are forgiven," instead of
being those of a present forgiveness,
now
first
passing upon her, can only be the repeated

;
assurance of a forgiveness which she must long since have received
and how strange
and unnatural a supposition

t
this is,
every one
may
judge.
The
fact of this opinion being introduced into
one of the hymns in the Liturgy as
by him reformed,
Maria sorer Lazari,

Quae
tot
commisit crimina,
16
234
when
the Scriptures
THE TWO DEBTORS.

were again subjected to a more critical examinabecame prevalent anew, and one
dis-
tion, the other interpretation gradually
miwht sav, had

sentient voice,
for
some while been recognized almost without a
till
again in our
own days Schleiermacher has

But
:
maintained,
not
think with success, but certainly with extraordinary acuteness,
that the anointing
happened but once.
to
enter further on this de-
bate would be alien to the present purpose

the parable of the
and the passage containing have the
Two
Debtors will be considered without any referother Gospels, of which indeed

altogether independent.
invited to the house of a Pharisee,
I
ence
to the histories in the

it is
firmest conviction that
Our Lord having been

" sat down
to meat.''
had there
as
is
That a woman, and one of a character such
here represented, should have pressed into the guest-chamber, and this
uninvited, either by the Lord, or by the master of the house, and that
she should have there been permitted to offer to the Saviour the form of homage which she did, may at first sight appear strange ; yet after all
does not require the supposition of something untold for

as that she
its
explanation,
was
a relation of Simon's, or lived in the
same house,
sup-
positions which are altogether strange, not to say contradictory to the
narrative.
little
acquaintance with the manners of the East, where
meals are so often almost public, where ranks are not separated with such iron barriers as with us, will make us feel with what ease such an
occurrence might have taken place.*
Or
if this
seems not altogether
to
must have had great influence

in the
in procuring its general acceptance. in the thirteenth century,
Even
so
we have
famous Dies ira, composed
Qui Mariam
though here
absolvisti
....
;
Mihi quoque spem
dedlsti
may
possibly be allusion to
slightest grounds, save
viii. 2,)
Mary Magdalene, who indeed was

that the
first
often,
though without the

after this incident,
notice of her occurs shortly

that
(Luke
identified
with this
woman
Mary
was a sinner
Evang.
so that
many
have made but one and the same person of

this
the sister of Lazarus,
Mary
belief
Magdalene, and
Christendom
an eminently
woman.
two
is
Thus Gregory
himself, Horn. 33 in
itself
The
in the identity of the

;
last
has indelibly impressed
on the very language of
but there
sinful
life,
nothing to
make
us suppose that
in the
before she
was found
is
Mary Magdalene had led company of the holy women that
ministered to the Lord, unless

of her, to
we
should interpret the seven devils which were cast out

a good sketch of the history of the controversy
v.
is
mean seven
sirs.
There
concerning this matter in Deyling's Obss. Sac, * The following confirmation of what above
observing a custom of the country.
3, p. 291.
written has been since put into
my
hands: " At a dinner at the Consul's house at Damietta

In the
we were much interested in room where we were received, besides the
divan on which
their places
at table
we
sat, there
were
seats all round the walls.
Many came
to
in
and took
to those
on those side-seats, uninvited and yet unchallenged.
They spoke
on business or the news of the day, and our host spoke freely
them.
This
THE TWO DEBTORS.

explain the circumstance, one has only to
obstacles as might have been raised
235
easily such
remember how
her,
up against
and would have
seemed insuperable would have been put
to others, or to herself in
another state of mind,
aside, or
it
broken through by an earnestness such as

is
now
possessed her: even as
the very nature of such religious ear-
nestness to break through and despise these barriers, nor ever to pause
and ask
itself
whether according
to the
world's judgment
it
be " in sea-
son" or "out of season."*

In the thoughts which passed through the heart of the Pharisee,
displeased at seeing that the
Lord did not
repel the
woman, but
gra-
ciously
itself
accepted her homage,
the
true spirit of a Pharisee betrays
of one who
to
could not raise his thoughts beyond a ceremonial
pollution, nor understand of holiness, as standing in anything save the
purifying of the
flesh,-]-
who would have

hi7n,
said to that
I
woman, had she
dared
approach unto
" Stand by thyself, for
am
holier than
made us understand the and Mary came in and

Pharisee's house,
forbidden, and
scene in Simon's house at Bethany, where Jesus sat at supper,
anointed his feet with ointment
and
in,
also the scene in the
where the
woman who was
a sinner
came
uninvited and yet not
washed his feet with her tears. We afterwards saw this custom at Jerusalem, and there it was still more fitted to illustrate these incidents. We were sitting round Mr. Nicolayson's table, when first one and then another stranger opened the
door, and
came
in,
taking their seat by the wall.
They
leant forward
and spoke
to those
at the table."
Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scot-
land in 1839.
* Augustine {Enarr. in Ps. cxl. 4)
:
Ilia
impudica, quondam frontosa ad fornica-
tionem, frontosior ad salutem irrupit in

Vidistis
domum
alienam
and again (Serm. 99,
c. 1)
mulierem famosam
et quaesisse pii
:
non invitatam
irruisse
:
convivio, ubi suus medicus
recumbebat,
impudentia sanitatem
irruens quasi importuna convivio,

:
opportuna beneficio
suae
and Gregory the Great {Horn. 33 in Evang.)
Quia
turpitudinis
maculas aspexit, lavanda ad fontem misericordiae cucurrit,convivantes non erubuit

quia semetipsam graviter erubescebat intus, nihil esse credidit, quod verecundare;
Nam
trix
;
tur foris
ostendisti
and another (Bernardi 0pp., v. 2, p. 601) Gratias tibi, 6 beatissima peccamundo tutum satis peccatoribus locum, pedes scilicet Jesu,qui neminem
:
spemunt, neminem
rejiciunt,
neminem
repellunt
;
suscipiunt omnes,
omnes admittunt*
;
Ibi certe jEthiopissa
mutat pellem suam
ibi
pardus mutat varietatem suam
ubi solus
Pharisaeus non exspumat superbiam suam.
t Augustine
Habebat sanctitatem
in corpore
non
in corde, et quia
c.
non habebat
cxxv. 2
;
earn in corde, utique falsam habebat in corpore.
Of.
Enarr. in Ps.
and
the
Gregory the Great (Horn. 34 in Evang.)

titia
Vera
justitia
compassionem habet,
falsa jus-
dedignationem.
As a specimen of similar
v. 8, puts this
:
notions of holiness current

:
among
Jews, a commentator on Prov.
very quustion
Quanto
spatio a meretrice
jFfei.,
recedendum est?
V. 1, p. 348.)
R. Chasda respondet
again,
at
p.
Ad
quatuorcubitos. (Schoettgen, i7or.

for the precautions
And
303, various Rabbis are extolled

;
which
they took to keep lepers
a distance from them
for
example, by flinging stones at
them
if
they approached too near.
236
THE TWO DEBTORS.
thou !"* In the conclusion to which, in his inward heart, he arrived, " This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what
manner of woman this is ;" we trace the belief, so evidently current among the Jews, that discerning of spirits was one of the marks of a
true prophet, and, in an especial degree, of the great prophet of
all,
the
;
Messiah,
Kin.
i.
a belief founded on Isaiah xi. 3, 4.
(See
in
Kin, xiv. 6
to the
v. 26.)
Thus Nathanael
first
exclaims
wonder
Lord
who has
truly read his character,
"Whence
knowest thou
me?" and
then presently breaks out into that undoubting confession of faith, " Thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel ;" and so the Sa-
maritan woman,
ever
I
"Come
and see a man who
told
me
;)
all
things which
did
is
not this the Christ ?" (John iv. 29
and on account of
25) expressfor
this belief
it is,
that the Evangelists are so often careful to record that
Jesus
knew
it,
the thoughts of his hearers, or as St.
John
(ii.
ly states
" needed not that any should

in
testify of
man,
he
knew
what was
man."f
dilemma,
in
So
that, in
fact, the
Pharisee mentally put the
Lord
this
into this
either he does not
know
it,
the true character of
woman,
is
which case he lacks

;
that discernment of spirits
which
pertains to every true prophet
or
if
he knows
and yet endures her

is
touch and
willing to accept a service at such hands, he
lacking in
that holiness
which
is
also the
mark of a prophet of God
such therefore
he cannot be. Probably as these thoughts were passing through his mind he already began to repent of the needless honour he had shown to one, whose pretensions to a peculiar mission from God he
in either case
had thus quickly concluded were unfounded.

that he
But the Lord showed him was indeed a discerner of the thoughts of hearts, by reading at once what was passing in his heart, and laying his finger without more " Simo7i,'' he said, "I have ado on the tainted spot which was there.
somewhat
to
say unto thee."
The
other could not refuse to hear, nor has
he yet so entirely renounced his faith in some higher character as belonging to his guest, but that he still addresses him with an appellation
of respect, " Master, say on." With this introduction, with this leave
to
speak asked and received,
the parable
debtors
:
is
uttered.
" There was a certain creditor which had two

the other fifty.
the one
owed Jive hundred pence and
And when
they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both."
In the words
* Bernard, in a beautiful passage (^Dc Dedic. Ecc.,Ser?n.4), styles
him
Pharisajum
ilium
murmurantem
atlversus
medicum,
qui salutem operabatur, et succensentem lan-
guidjE, quae salvabatur.
t Vitringa (Obss. Sac, v. 1, p. 479) has an interesting and instructive essay, (De Signis a Messid edendis,) on the expectations of the Jews concerning the miracles
which the Messiah was
to perform,
and by which he was
to legitimate his pretensions.
THE TWO DEBTORS.

themselves there
the case
is
237
them
to
no
difficulty,
though
in the application of
which they were spoken

God,
it
to illustrate, there are
one or two of
considerable importance.
needs not
the
to say, is the creditor,
men
the debtors, and sins the debts.
Of
sums named
it
as the
amount of
the debts, fifty and five hundred pence,
may
be remarked that they

as the two debts
vary indeed, but nothing vary

in the
like in the
same proportion
talents
parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

is
(Matt, xviii.)
There
the difference
between ten thousand
and one hundred pence,

is
an enormous difference, even as the difference

sins
enormous between the

his
which a man commits against God, and those which

against him
;
fellow-man
may commit
the
but here the difference
is
not at all so great,
sums vary but
in the proportion of ten to one, for there is
no such
in-
calculable difference between the sins which one
man and
another com-
me therefore, which of I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most." The difficulties meet us when we come to the applicafor while that which Simon says is true in the tion of these words order of things natural, can the consequences which would seem thereupon to be induced as relates to the spiritual world be true also? Are we to conclude from hence, as at first sight might seem, that there is any
mits against God.
:
Our Lord proceeds

?
" Tell
them will love him most
Si7non answered,
advantage
in
having multiplied transgressions

if
that the wider a

at all,
man
not
has wandered from God, the nearer,

cleave to him afterwards
?
he be brought back
he will
it
the
more
sin, the
more love
Would
us sin
then follow, " Let us do evil that good
now, that we
may
love
much
hereafter,
will
it
may come," that we may
let
much
avoid that luke-
warmness of
sinned but
affections
which
be the condition of those that have
little ?
And would
not then seem, that for a
man
to
have
been kept out of gross offences

deeper religious earnestness,
out of his baptismal
root,
in the
or,
time before he was awakened to a

still,
better
for a
man
to
have grown
instead of being a blessing, and a mercy, and
ing, in his case, an effectual barrier to
a matter of everlasting thanksgiving, would prove an hindrance, opposany very near and very high
love with his Saviour?
communion of
thus,
And
to
understand the passage
would
the
it
not be to affirm a moral contradiction,

love,
this, that
more a man has emptied himself of

nobler affections and powers,
laid
waste
all
to affirm
in fact
the
more he has
the deeper his heart has
sunk
in selfishness
and sensuality,
(for sin is all this,) the

?
more capable
he will be of the highest and purest love
But
the whole matter
is
clear, if
we
consider the debt, not as an ob-
jective, but a subjective, debt,
not as so many outward transgressions and outbreaks of evil, but as so much conscience of sin and this we well know is in no wise in proportion to the amount and extent of evil
:
238
THE TWO DEBTORS.

men
actually committed and brought under the cognizance of other
Often they who have least of what the world can call sin, or rather crime, (for the world knows nothing of sin,) have yet the deepest sense
of the exceeding sinfulness of sin
bitterness in themselves
I
a are most conscious of are the most forward exclaim, " Woe
it,
as
root of
is
to
me,
am
undone, because
am
man
of unclean lips ;" and therefore, as

evil, are the
they have most groaned under the

not necessarily he
most thankful
but he
for the
little
fact of a redemption, for the gift of a
Redeemer.
sinned
But he who has
forgiven
is
who has
little,
ing in any strong conviction of the exceeding evil of sin,

feeling of his
who is lackwho has little

that
own
share in the universal taint and
corruption
cleaves to
all
the descendants of
Adam, who has never
learned to take
great
home
his sin to himself;
who, therefore, while he
may have no
objection to God's plan of salvation,
may have
loves
little,
a cold respect, as this
Pharisee had, for Christ, yet esteems that he could have done as well,
or nearly as well, without him.
He
or scarcely at
;
all,
be-
cause he has
little
sense of a deliverance wrought for him

it
because he
never knew what
was
to lie
under the curse of a broken law, having
the sentence of death in himself, and then by that merciful Saviour to be

set free,
and bidden
to live,
and brought into the glorious liberty of the
children of God.*
having
Simon himself was an example of one who thus loved little, who little sense of sin, felt little his need of a Redeemer, and there-
fore loved that
Redeemer but
little
and he had betrayed

to his guest,
this his lack

in-
of love in small yet significant matters.

vitation itself as sufficient
Accounting, probably, the
honour done
he had withheld
in the
from him the ordinary courtesies almost universal

neither given
East
had
nor
(Ps.
him water
for the feet,
(Gen.
xviii.
;
Judg. xix. 21,)

xviii.
nor offered him the kiss of peace, (Gen. xxii. 4

anointed his head with
xxiii.
oil,
Exod.
7,)
as
cxli.
Matt.
vi. 17.)
was But while he had

far
feet,
ever the custom at festivals.
fallen so short of the
customary courtesies, that woman had

poured waier on the Saviour's
exceeded them.
He
had not
she
had washed them, not with
* Augustine (Serfn. 99, c. 4) freely
acknowledges the
modici\m
stress of this difficulty

;
Dicit
enim
aliquis, Si
cui
modicum
dimittitur,
diligit
:
cui
autem plus
dimittitur,
plus diligit, expedit plus diligere
qakm
minfts diligere
oportet ut multiim peccemus

;
ut dimissorem magnoruin debitorum amplius diligamus

diligere
and again
Si invenero plus
utilior erat
:
eum,
cui plura peccata dimissa sunt, utilius
multa peccavit,
it
:
multa
iniquitas,
ne esset tepida caritas.

diligis,
And
he solves
as
is
done above
Pharisaee,
ideo,
parum
quia
parum
tibi
dimitti suspicaris
non quia parum
dimittitur, sed
quia parum putas esse, quod dimittitur.
Compare a
beautiful
sermon by Schleiermacher.
{Predigten,
v. 1, p.
524
THE TWO DEBTORS.

water but with her tears
them,
239
Augustine
;
the blood of her and then wiped them with of her

the hairs
heart,* as
calls
head
he
had not
given the single kiss of salutation on the cheek, she had multiplied
kisses,
and those upon the

oil,
feet
he had not anointed the head of Jesus with

his feet.
;
ordinary
but she with precious ointment had anointed even

Her
sins which are
" Wherefore I say unto thee,
many, are forgiven
for she loved much : but to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little.^' There is an embarrassment, by all acknowledged, on the face of these
words
first,
how
is
to
bring them into agreement with the parable, for in
that the debtor
said to love
be forgiven much, because he loved
much, because forgiven much, and not to much and again how to bring
:
them
agreement with the general doctrine of Scripture, which ever teaches that we love God because he first loved us, that faith is the
into
previous condition of forgiveness, and not love, which

at all, but a
is
not a condition
consequence.
Some have
felt
these difficulties so strongly,
that in their terror lest the Romanists should
draw any advantage
for their
fides formata from the passage,

to do,
they have
which
indeed they are willing enough
affirmed that the word designating the cause really
stands for that designating the consequence,

given, for she
loved
that " her sins are for-
she loved ?/iuc/i."f
much," means, " her sins are forgiven, therefore But in the first place, it was not true that she
to
yet
knew her
sins
be forgiven,
;
the
absolving words are
only
spoken in the next verse

trinal
text, will at
and moreover,
this
way
of eseape from a doc-
embarrassment, by some violence done

once be rejected by
all,
to the plain
words of the
who
justly believe that in the inter-
pretation of Scripture,
first
grammar, and
the laws of
human
speech, should
itself
be respected, and that the doctrine can and will take care of
will
never in the end be found in any contradiction with
itself,
that
the faith of the part of the
Church will ever come triumphantly forth out of every word of God. And as far as regards advantage which the
would
fain
Romish
ever
controversialists
draw from
the passage, such, what-
may
be the explanation, there can really be none.
The
parable
stands in the heart of the narrative, an insuperable barrier against such;
he who owed the large debt

his
is
not forgiven
it
as freely as the other is

felt to-
smaller debt, because of the greater love which he before

;:j:
wards the creditor

*
t
but,
on the contrary, the sense of a larger debt
Fudit lacrynias, sanguinem cordis.
They say
oVi is
here for Ho, and appeal to John
viii.
44 and
p.
John
iii.
14
but
neither passage, rightly interpreted, yields the least support to the view that the
words
could ever be interchangeably used.

X
(See Winer's Grammatik,

is
426.)
Incredible as
it v/ill
appear, this
:
actually the interpretation of the parable given

is
by Maldonatus, (ad
loc.)
"
Which
of them will love him most ?"
only, he affirms,
240
remitted,
THE TWO DEBTORS.

makes him afterwards
that her sins
love his creditor more.
were
it
meant
were forgiven, because,

and not
faith,*
would make charity

to the
justify
she
And
besides,
in their sense
who
loved much, the other
clause in the sentence would necessarily be, " But he
who
loveth
little,
same
little is
forgiven."
''for she loved much,''
But the words,
may
best be explained
by con-
sidering what the strong sorrow for sin, and the earnest desire after forgiveness, such as this
arise
;
woman
displayed, mean, and from
whence they
is
surely from
this,
from the deep feeling
in the sinner's heart, that
by
his sins
he has separated himself from that
God who
Love, while
yet he cannot do without his love,
from the
after
feeling that the heart
must
be again permitted
it,
to love
him, must be again assured of his love toward
else
it
will utterly wither

;
and
die.
Sin unforgiven
forgiveness,
is felt
to
be the
great barrier to this
and the desire
it
if
it
be not a
mere
heart
selfish desire after personal safety, in
which case
can be nothing This desire

for the
before God,
is
the desire for the removal
of this barrier, that so the beloved again.
may
be free to love and to

love at
its
know
itself
then
is itself
negative pole, not as yet
made
positive,
it
work of grace,
to
the absolving
word of God can alone make
so
it
is
the flower of love desiring to bud and bloom, but not daring and not able
put itself forth in the chilling atmosphere of the anger of God,
but
have
he in
a popular
way
to
of saying, "
Which
of them did love
him most
V which of
them may
you conclude from the

been dearest
effect to
have had most affection
for l:\im, and, therefore, to
him, he in whose behalf he was willing

?
to remit a large debt, or
whose behalf he only remitted a small

the last this
certainly untrue.
He
asserts the
same
to
have been the inter;
pretation of the parable given by Euthemius, and also by Augustine

is
in
the
case of
* Let
me
quote, were
it
only with the hope of bringing
it
before one reader

to
who
was
hitherto ignorant of
it,
the following passage
on the attempt thus

to
substitute
it
charity for faith in the justification of
man.
but
"
To many,
myself formerly,
has ap-
peared a mere dispute about words

for
it
it is
by no means of so harmless a character,
tends to give a false direction to our thoughts, by diverting the conscience from
the ruined and corrupted state in which
we
?
are without Christ.
Sin
is
the disease.
What
term
is
the
remedy?
Charity? Pshaw
faith in the
Charity in the large apostolic sense of the
is
the health, the state to be obtained by the use of the remedy, not the sovereign
balm
itself,
faith
of grace,
God-manhood,
the cross, the mediation, the

all
perfected righteousness of .Tesus, to the utter rejection and abjuration of
righteous;
ness of our
own
rill
Faith alone
is
the restorative.
The Romish scheme
is
preposterous
is
it
puts the
before the spring.

the stream from
it.
Faith
It is
is
the source,
charity, that
is
the
whole
Christian
life, is
;
quite childish to talk of faith being imperfect

fire,
without charily
as wisely might you say that a

;
however bright and strong, was

imperfect without beams.
imperfect without heat
or that the sun, however cloudless,

:
The
true
answer would be
it is
not
faith,
but
utter reprobate faithlessness."
(Cole-
ridge, Literary Remains, v. 2, p. 368.)
THE TWO DEBTORS.

which
will do so at
241
the
once when
to the stern
winter of God's anger,
genial spring of his love succeeds.
In this sense that
woman
" loved
much
;"
all
her conduct proved the intense yearning of her heart after a
reconciliation with a
God of
love,
from
whom
know
fact,
she had alienated herself
by her
sins
all
her tears and her services witnessed
how much she
de-
sired to be permitted to love
him and
to
herself beloved of him,
and on account of
**
this
her love, which, in
was
faith,* (see ver. 50,
Thy faith hath saved thee,") she obtained forgiveness of her sins. This
sense of the miserable emptiness of the creature,

that a life apart from
this
acknowledgment
willing to
God
to all
is
not
life
but death, with the conviction that

is
in
God
filled
there
is
fulness of grace and blessing, and that he
impart of this fulness be
who
it
bring the empty vessel of the heart to

or initiatory love,
this is
is
by him
this, call
faith,
gift,
what alone makes
man
receptive of any divine
what
that Pharisee, in his leall,
gal righteousness, in his self-sufficiency and pride,f had scarcely at
and therefore he derived
little
or no good from communion with Christ.
But
that
woman had
it
in large
measure, and therefore she bore
away
even
the largest and best blessing which the Son of

the forgiveness of her sins
;
God had
in
to bestow,
to
her those blessed words were spoken,

in
"
Thy
faith
hath saved thee, go

sin
peace ;" and
her
it
was proved true
that
"where
abounded, grace did
much more abound."

"On
jjyuriyo-c
* Very distinctly Theophylact (in loc.)

ToWfiv,
nn\v, dvTi tov, irtanv heSeiâro

for
and presently before he

kol dyavri;.
calls all
which she had been doing
her Saviour,
Tria-
Tcoi; cvjj/Ho'Xa
For further testimonies

1.
in favour of this exposition, see
Ger-
hard's Loc. Theoll.,
loc. 16, c. 8,
+ In the Bustan of the famous Persian poet Saadi, (see Thot.uck's BlUthensamml.
aus
d.
Morgenl. Mystik,
p.
251,) there
is
a story
which seems an echo of
this evangeli-
cal history.
Jesus, while on earth,
monk, of eminent
sin,
reputation for
was once entertained in the cell of a dervisch or in the same city dwelt a youth sunk in every sanctity
;
" whose heart was so black that Satan himself shrunk back from
last
it
in
horror."
This
presently appeared before the cell of the
monk, and,
as smitten by the very

life
presence of the Divine prophet, began to lament deeply the sin and misery of his
past,
and shedding abundant
tears, to
implore pardon
and grace.
in vain to
The monk
indig-
nantly interrupted him, demanding

of God's holy prophet
;
how
he dared to appear in his presence and in that

it
assured him that for him
was
seek forgiveness
and in proof how inexorably he considered his lot was fixed for hell, exclaimed, " My God, grant me but one thing, that I may stand far from this man on the judgment-day."
On
this
Jesus spoke, "
It shall
be even so
the prayer of both
is
granted.
his sins
This sinner has sought mercy and grace, and has not sought them in vain,
are forgiven,
his place
shall be in Paradise at the last day.

this sinner,
But
is
this
monk
has pray-
ed that he
may
never stand near
his
prayer too
granted,
hell shall
be
his place, for there this sinner shall never
come.
242
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.
PARABLE
XVII.
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

Luke
x.
30-37.
We
need not suppose that the lawyer, who " stood

this
up" and
proposed
to
our Lord the question out of which

malicious intention therein, least of
parable presently grew, had any
all that
deep malignity which moved

6
;
questions like those recorded at John
viii.
Matt. xxii. 16
;
which
attrib-
were, in
fact,
nothing less than snares for his
life
nor need
we
ute to this lawyer even that desire to perplex and silence, out of which
other questions had their rise. (Matt. xxii. 23.)
the question
itself,
;
For
in the first place,
"What
shall
do
to inherit eternal life
]" was not an
ensnaring one
it
was not one
like that
concerning the tribute-money,
which
it
was hoped would put

;
the answerer,
however he
replied, in a
false position
and further,
we may conclude from

mocking
;
the earnestness of
the Lord's reply, that the spirit out of which the question
had not been altogether
light or
since
it
was
not his
was proposed, manner to

for attribu-
answer so the mere cavillers or despisers.

pared with Mark
that he
is
The only ground
ting an evil intention to this scribe, or lawyer,

xii.
for Matt, x.xii. 35,
com-
28,
show
that scribe and

to
said to
its
have put the question
lawyer are the same, is But Christ " tempting him."

to
to tempt, in
trial of,
proper signification, means nothing more than

evil,
is
make
and whether the tempting be good or
determined by the
Thus God tempts man, when he puts it springs. him to proof, that he may show him what is in himself, that he may show him sins, which else might have remained concealed even from
motive out of which
himself; (Jam.
strengthen
is that
it;
i.
12
;)
he tempts
;
man
xi.
to
;)
bring out his good, and to

or if to bring his evil out,
it
(Gen.
xxii. 1
Heb.
17
the
man may
himself also become aware of some evil which be-
it is to fore was concealed from him, and watch and pray against it, humble him and to do him good in his latter end ;* only Satan tempts man
*
in
Iltipo^cii'
it
TreTpav
\a^(iavtiv.
Augustine very frequently describes the manner
God tempts, and the purposes which he has in tempting Omnis tentatio probatio est, et omnia probationis effectus thus {Enarr. in Ps. Iv. 1) Quia homo plerumque etiam sibi ipsi ignotus est quid ferat, habet fructum suum.
which
can be said that
: :
quidve non ferat ignorat, et aliquando prjESumit se ferre quod non potest, et aliquando
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

purely
this
to irritate
243
evil.
and bring out and multiply his

it
The purpose
side that high
of
lawyer
in tempting Jesus, as
little
was not on the one
and
holy one, so as
seems
it
this
deeply malignant on the other.

to
The
put the
Evangelist probably meant nothing more than that he desired
Lord
tioner
to the trial.
Comparing Matt.
xxii.
35 with Mark
xii.
28-34, both
records of the same conversation,

is
we
shall see that in the first the ques-
said to
;
have proposed
his question, as in the present case, tempt-
while in the second Evangelist, the Lord bears witness concerning the very questioner, " Thou art not far from the kingdom of
ing the Lord
God
;" even as he
was evidently a seeker and lover of truth.
We canit
not, indeed,
suppose that the question, on the present occasion, arose

to be further instructed in
purely from love of the truth, and a desire

but the lawyer probably would fain
make proof of
the skill of this fa-
mous
Galilaean teacher, he
would measure
his depths,
and with
this pur-
pose he brought forward the question of questions, " inherit eternal life ?"
What
shall I do to
Our Lord's
ready answered
is
reply
;
is
as
much
as to say,
The question you ask
is al-
contained in
what need to make further inquiries, when the answer the words of that very law, of which you profess to be a
?
searcher and expounder

question
?
What
is
written there concerning this great
"
How
readest thou ?"
That the lawyer should

to,
at
once lay
his finger on the great
commandment which
was superior
to the
Christ himself quoted as

little
such on that other occasion just referred

sight,
showed no
spiritual in-
proved
that he
common range
of his country,
men
he quotes rightly Deut.
vi. 5, in
connexion with Lev. xix. 18, as
containing the essence of the law.
timony that he has answered well,
Thereupon our Lord bears him testhat his words were right words,
however he might be ignorant of

volved
this
:
their full import,

;
of
all
which they
in-
"
Thou
hast answered right

into effect,
this do,
let
it
and thou shalt
live ;" put
which thou knowest
it
pass from dead uninfluential
knowledge
into living practice,

is
and
:
will be well.
Now
at
length the
lawyer's conscience
touched
these last words have found
him out
if
however he may have owned

living in obedience to
it.
in theory the
law of love, he has not been

he has
Still
he would fain justify himself;
not been large and free in the exercise of love towards his fellow men,
it is
because few have claims upon him

is
" True,
am
to
love
my
neighbour as myself, but who

desperat se posse ferre quod potest.
my
neighbour ?"*
The very
question,
Accedit tentatio quasi interrogatio,
et
invenitur
homo k
as
Cf.
seipso, quia latebat et
seipsum, sed artificem non latebat.
Thus God tempts,
ioKijiaaThi tuiv KapStuiv,
Satan, on the contrary, is The tempter (5 n-tipu^wv := o TTEipao-r^s .) Tertullian, De Oratione, c. 8. * Tholuck {Auslegung der Bergpredigt, Matt. v. 43,) has an instructive inquiry
244
like Peter's,
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

"
How
oft shall
my
brother sin against me, and
forgive
him 1" was

which alone
not merely a question
which might receive a wrong answer,
but itself a wrong question, involving a wrong condition of mind, out of

it
could have proceeded.
He who
asked,
"Whom
shall I
love ?" proved that he understood not what that love meant of which he
spoke, for he wished to have laid

do,
and where he should be

not upon his love
is,
;
who
whose essence
ceed further,
that
it
it
down beforehand how much he was to who had a claim and thus proving that he knew nothing of that love, has no limit, except in its own inability to proat
liberty to stop,
that
receives a law only from

to
itself,
that
it is
a debt
still
which we must be well content

to
be ever paying, and not the less

is
owe.
(Rom.
to
xiii.
8.)
to
it
Especially wonderful
him, wonderful, that
is,
the reply which our
blessed Saviour
makes
in its adaptation to the
was addressed, leading him, as it does, to take off his eye from the object to which love is to be shown, and to turn it back and inward upon him who is to show the love ; for this is the key to the following parable, and with this aim it was spoken.
needs of him
whom
"A
*'
certain
went down,"
or,
man went dotvn from Jerusalem to JericJio." He says, "was going down," not merely because Jerusalem
stood considerably higher than Jericho,

fitness in this view,
troplis,
but because the going
for the
to
phrase would have

to the
its
Jerusalem, as
me-
was always spoken of as going up.
(See Acts
xviii. 22.)
The
distance between the two cities was about an hundred and

the road lying through a desolate and rocky region
that goeth
itself,
"the
fifty stadia,
wilderness
up from Jericho," (Josh.
xvi. 1,)
though the plain of Jericho

fertility
the second city in Judaea,
was one of extraordinary

and
and
beauty, well watered, and abounding in palms, (" the city of palm-trees,"
Judg.
i.
16,) in roses, in balsam, in honey,

St.
in all the choicest
produc-
tions of Palestine.*
Jerome mentions
that a particular part of the
road leading from one of these cities
to the other,
was
called the red or
on the interpretation which the Jews gave

is
to the
term " neighbour," in the law.
It
striking to see the question of the narrow-hearted scribe, "

in
Who
is
my
neiglibour ]"
I
reappearing
one
who would
all
think that they two had

:
little
in
common.
make
this
extract from Emerson's Essays {Ess. 2)
"
Do
not
tell
me, as a good man did lo-day,
of
my
obligation to put
poor
men
in
good
situations.
Are they my poor?

belong.
sold
;
I tell
thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, the dime, the cent, I give to
suck men as do not belong

of persons to
prison,
if
to
me, and
to
whom
;
by
all spiritual affinity I
whom I do not am bought and
There
is
a class
for
them
I will
go
to
need be
but your miscellaneous popular charities, &c."

v.
* CoTORici /<incr., quoted by Winer {Real W(irterhuch,s.

tie sita
Jericho)
Est in planiet pin-
peramplft, montibus in theatri
formam circumdata, amamissimS quidem
guis3ima, sed incultA hodie, floribus tamen et herbis odoriferis abundantissimS.
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

the bloody way,* so
that in his
245
;
much
blood had there been shed by robbers
and
with
own
time, there
was
at
one point in
this
wilderness a
;
fort
Roman
garrison, for the protection of travellers
so that the incident
of the poor traveller falling in that very journey among robbers seems taken from the
life.
Those among
whom
he
fell
^^
did their best to main-
tain the infamous character of the spot, for they

ment,''^
stripped
and, because, perhaps, he
made some
slight resistance as they
him of his raiwere
spoiling him, or out of
departed, leaving
mere wantonness of him half dead. ^^
cruelty, "
wounded him, and
As he
priest that
lay bleeding in the road, " hy chance there came down a certain
way."
The original would justify
us
in
saying rather
'
by coin-
cidence "f than " by chance ;" by that wonderful falling in of one event with another, which often indeed seems to men but chance, yet is indeed
of the
fine
weaving
in,
by God's providence, of the threads of

woof.
diflerent
men's
lives into one
common
He
brings the negative pole of one-
man's need
into contact with the positive of another
man's power of help!
one man's
haps which
in
emptineSg'iMib: relation with another's fulness.

to acts
Many
op
our summonses
of love are of this kind, and they are those per-
we
are most in danger of missing, through a failing to see
them
this finger
of God.
He
at least
who went down
that
way
miss-
ed his opportunity.
There would be a
fine irony in the supposition that
he was one who was journeying from Jericho, which was a great station
of the priests, to Jerusalem, there to execute his office before God, " in
the order of his course," or who, having accomplished his turn of service,
was returning to his home. But whether this was so or not, at all events he was one who had never learned what that meant, " I will have mercy, and not sacrifice;" rather one who, whatever duties he might have
been careful
in fulfilling,
had " omitted the weightier matters of the law,
judgment, mercy, and
faith ;"
for " wheii he
saw him, he passed hy on
the
ô likewise did a LevitCj^though in his cruelty there was other side." X an additional aggravation ; for he, it might beout of curiosity, drew near
and looked
it
at the
miserable condition of the wounded man, claiming, as

;
did, instant help
for the life that
remained was
fast
ebbing through
* Onomast.,
s. v.
Adommim.
There
is
a particularly impressive description of this
dreary route in Lamartine's Travels in the Holy Land.

to
Indeed no
travellers
seem
have gone
this
journey without being deeply impressed with the wildness and deso-
lation of the road.
t Kara avyKvpiav.
TiVyKVpta, or
more commonly
vi'ith
avyKvpriTis,
from avv and
AUjOECJ
Twyx"""' *^^ falling in of one event

t
another, exactly our English coincidence.

it is
]f the
wounded man was a Jew, and

his
very unnatural to assume him to have

in this very far
:
been any other,
countrymen
(the priest
and the Levite) were
indeed
from deserving even that limited praise which Tacitus gives them
cordia in promptu.
Apud
ipsos niiseri-
246
his
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

all
open gashes, and yet after
could endure
to
pass forward without
affording
him the
sliglitest
assistance.
Thus
did they,
who made
it
their
boast in, and
were
the express interpreters of, that law,
which was so
had
said,
careful in pressing
the
duties
of humanity, that twice
"
Thou
shalt not see thy brother's ass, or his ox, fall

;
and hide thyself from them

again."
thou shalt surely help

xxiii. 5.)
down by the way, him to lift them up

and they hid
(Deut. xxii. 4
Exod.
Here
not a brother's ox or
his ass, but a brother himself,
was lying
in his blood,
themselves from him. (Isai. Iviii. 7.) " But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was."
He
might have found the same excuses
for
hurrying on as those who had

to
gone before him had done,

selves,
for
no doubt they did make excuses
them-
they
;
did, in
some way or
other, justify their neglect to their
own
out-
consciences
as perhaps they said that there
was danger where one
rage had happened, of another happening,
that the robbers, probably,
were not far distant, and might return at any moment, or that the or that he who was found near sufferer was beyond the help of man,
maritan was exposed
him might himself be accused of having been his murderer. The Sato at least the same danger in all these respects, as
those that had passed before him, but he took not counsel of these selfish
fears, for
sion
when he saw the wounded and bleeding man, " he had compasWhile the priest and Levite, marked out as those on him.^' *
who
should have been foremost in showing pity and exercising mercy,
were forgetful of the commonest duties of humanity, it was left to the excommunicated Samaritan, whose very name was a by- word of contempt
among
the Jews, and

;
what love was
and
to
synonymous with heretic, (John viii. this, not as was required of them,
48,) to
to
show
a fellow,
countryman, but
one of an alien f and hostile race,
one of a people
first, for
This compassion, as the best thing he gave,

1.
is
:
mentioned
Gregory the
Great says with great beauty (Moral.,

extra semetipsum praebuit.
20,
c.
36)
et
Exteriora etenirn iargiens,
rem
Qui autera fletum
compassionem proximo
tribuit, ei
aliquid etiam de semetipso dedit.
Our Lord
calls the
Samaritan a stranger,
(aXXoytyiis,
Luke
xvii. 18,)
one of a
dif-
ferent stock.
It is
very curious
how
the notion of the Samaritans, as being a mingled

Israelitish,
people,
composed of two elements, one heathen and one
should of late uni;
versally have found
way
not merely into popular but into learned books
so that they are
often spoken of as, in a great measure, the later representatives of the ten tribes.
tian antiquity
Chris-
knew nothing
;
of this view of their origin, but
saw
yap
in
them a people ofunto
mingled heathen blood
(see testimonies in Suicer's
Thes.,
s. v. Hiajxapcirns,
ol
which
may
be added Theophylact on
Luke
xvii. 15, 'Aainptoi
EoâpiVa<
;)
and the
Scripture itself affords no countenance whatever for this view, but
much
that
makes
against
it.
In 2 Kin.
xvii.,
where the deportation of the
Israelites is related, there is
not a word to
make
us suppose that
any were
left,
or that there
was any blending of
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

that
as,
247
no doubt,
had no dealings with his people, that anathematized them ; even all the influences with which he had been surrounded from
his youth,
would have led him, as
far as
he yielded
to
them,
to
repay
hate with hate, and insult with insult, and wrong with wrong.
the
For
if
Jew
called the Samaritan a Cuthite,
the image of a dove,
and cursed him publicly

in the
an
idolater
in his
who worshipped
synagogue,
life,
prayed
ceived,
that
he might have no portion
resurrection of
and and
proclaimed that his testimony was worth nothing and might not be re-
that he
who
entertained a Samaritan in his house,
up judgments
for his children,
that to eat a morsel of his fare
was laying was as
the Cuthites and other Assyrian colonists that were brought in, with a remnant of the
original
was
carried
easily
whom they found slill in the land. It is true that when Judah away captive, many of the people were left still in the land but we can their sins comexplain why they should have been thus differently dealt with
inhabitants,
: ;
paratively were smaller, and the Lord moreover had a purpose of bringing back the
captivity of Judah.
Winer {Real WOrterbuch,

the ten tribes
s.
v.
Samaritaner) says that
it is
very
unlikely that
some out of
were not
left
behind in the same manner.
But
2 Kin. xxi. 13, seems to give the strongest testimony that there were none whatever. For there the Lord threatening Judah says, " I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahah, and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, and turneth it upside down." This, which was only a threat against
Judah, in part averted by repentance, had actually been executed against Samaria.
(See Jer.
unusual,
vii.
15.)
That such an
see from
entire clearance of a conquered

3.
territory
was not
by
we may
Herod.
140
6.
31.
For an account of
the process
which
was sometimes effected, and which the Persians may well have learnt from The historian their Babylonian and Assyrian forerunners in empire, see p. 110, note. describes a Greek island which had undergone the process, as being delivered to a
it
new
lord,pi7pi; iovaav dv^pwv.
If the
Samaritans had owned any Jewish blood in their

this forward, as
veins, they
would certainly have brought

temple
mightily strengthening their
claim to be allowed to take part with Zerubbabel and Ezra, and the returned Jewish
exiles, in the rebuilding of the
;
but they only say, "
We
seek your
God
as ye
do,
and we do
sacrifice
unto him since the days of Esarhaddon, king of Assur, which

iv.
brought us up hither." (Ezra

apostles, said, " Into
2.)
When
our Lord, at the
first
sending out of his

x. 5,)
any
city of the
Samaritans enter ye not," (Matt.
he was not,
till
as
some
tell us,
yielding to popular prejudice, but gave the prohibition because,

first
the Gospel had been

Israel," they
offered to the Jews, " to the lost sheep of the house of

to it
had no more claim
than any other Gentiles, being as
much
is
dX-
\oywcXi, (Josephus calls

is,
them
dWotOveis,) as
any other heathen.

;
What
singular
that the mistake
is
altogether of recent origin
the expositors of
two hundred years
ago are quite clear of it. Hammond speaks of the Samaritan in our parable, as " being of an Assyrian extraction ;" and Maldonatus Samaritani origine Chaldcei
;
erant
rizi,
and Reland, De Samaritanis
and many more.
For the opinion of Mak-
the very accurate and learned Arabian geographer, concerning the origin of the
Samaritans, an opinion altogether agreeing with that here stated, see S. de Sacy's Chrest. Arabe, v. 2, p. 177. And Robinson, in his Biblical Researches, speaking of the
Samaritans, says, "
The physiognomy
of those
we saw was
not Jewish."
248
eating swine's flesh
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.
and
We
in
general would rather sufler any need than

smallest office of charity
;
be beholden
to
him
for the
the Samaritan
was
not behindhand in cursing, nor yet in active demonstrations of enill
mity and
(John
iv.
will.
are not without evidences of this in the Gospels,
9; Luke
ix. 53,)
and from other sources more examples of

While,
for instance, the
their spite
may
be gathered.
Jews were
in the
habit of communicating the exact time of the
new moon
to those at
distance from Jerusalem, by fires kindled on the highest mountain tops,
they would give the signal on the day preceding the right one, so
perplex and mislead.*
to
And Josephus mentions

Jerusalem,
that they
sometimes pro-
ceeded
much
further than merely to refuse hospitality to the

to the feasts at
Jews who
them most
were going up
dered
many
of them
and once,
that they
fell
upon and murto
which must have been
horrible of
all,
a Samaritan entering Jerusalem secretly, polluted the
whole temple, by scattering in it human bones. But the heart of this Samaritan was not hardened, though
influences must have been at
so
it
many
work
to
harden and
to
steel
is
against
the needs and distresses of a Jew.
Exceedingly touching
he
here the
minuteness with which
all
the details of his tender care toward the poor
and unknown stranger, of

nation
bitterly
whom
his
all
knew was,
his
that he belonged to a
hostile
to
own, are given.
He
" bound up his

first
wounds/' no doubt with stripes torn from poured in wine to cleanse them, and then
to
own garments, having
oil to
assuage their smart, and
bring gently the sides of them together, these two being costly but
well
this
known and
highly esteemed remedies throughout the
East.:}:
All
must have consumed no little time, and this too while there was every motive to hasten onward. But after thus he had ministered to the wounded man's most urgent needs, and revived in him the dying spark
life,
of
he "
set
him on
his
own
beast,
and brought him
to
an inn," and
so did he ac-
there a"-ain
renewed
his care
all,
and attention.
Nor even
for
count that he had done
but before he departed on the morrow, with

the further wants of
to the host,
the considerate foresight of love, he provided

the sufferer
" he
is
took out two pence
and gave them
and said
unto him. Take care of him, and whatsoever thou spendest more, lohen
come again, /
* This fact
159,)
will repay thee."
mentioned by Makrizi,
it
(see S.
de Sacy's Chrest. Arahe,
v. 2, p.
who
affirms that
was
this
which put the Jews on making accurate calcula-
tion to determine the
moment
of the
new moon's
appearance.
Cf.
ScnoEXTGEN's Hot.
Ife6.,v.
t
l,p.344.
2. 2. //. iV.,
1.
Josephus, Antt., 18.
See
Isai.
i.
6.
Puny,
oil,
31,
c.
47.
Both Greek and Latin physicians

Trouble not the poor
commended vinegar and
or wine
and
oil, to
be used in cases of bruises and wounds.

thee."
Let us not miss the tyili dnoiuxru,
"/will repay
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

Beautiful as
letter,
is this
249
parable
when
to
thus taken simply according to the

to
and
full
of incentives to active mercy and love, bidding us be kind and tender-hearted, yet
" put on bowels of mercies,"
how
and
much
lovelier
still,
provoking how
much more
a deeper
strongly
still
to love
good works, when, with most of the Fathers of the Church, with
too of the Reformers,
many
to
we
trace in
it
meaning
still,
and see the

us
work of
here.
Christ, of the merciful
Son of man himself, pourtrayed

it
makes the paBut this is a rable to be nothing to the matter immediately in hand. To magnify the law of love, to show mistake for what is that matter ? who fulfils it, and who not. Inasmuch then as Christ himself, he who
It
has been objected
to this interpretation, that
accounted himself every man's brother,
in its largest extent fulfilled

;
it,
showed how we ought

ample, or rather
to love
and
whom
and inasmuch as
us,
it is
his ex-
faith in his love
towards
which
is
alone really ef-
fectual in causing us to " love one another with a pure heart fervently,'"
he might well propose himself and his act
in
succouring the perishing

self- forgetting
humanity, as the everlasting pattern of self-denying and

love,
and bring
it
out in strongest contrast with the selfish carelessness
and neglect of the present leaders of the theocracy.
They had
4,) while
not
strengthened the diseased, nor healed the sick, nor bound up the broken,
nor sought that which was driven away, (see Ezek. xxxiv.
he
had bound up the broken-hearted,

sweetest consolation into
all
(Isai. Ixi. 1,)

spirits.
and poured the balm of

Moreover, even the ad-
wounded
versaries of this interpretation must themselves acknowledge the facility
with which
all
the circumstances of the parable yield themselves to it;
and
it
certainly affords a strong presumption that a

is
it
key we have
lock,
in
our
hand
the right one,
when
it
thus turns in the lock without forcing,

all
when
adapts itself at once to
the
wards of the
however many
for the
and complex.
Of
course, this deeper interpretation
was reserved
;
future edification of the Church.
The lawyer
naturally took and
was
to
meant
to
take the meaning which lay upon the surface

its
nor will the
parable lose
value
it
to us, as
showing
forth the pity
and love of
man
his fellow, because
also
shadows
forth the
crowning act of mercy and

Nature, or
has
left
love
shown by
the
Son of man
is
to the entire race.
The
is
traveller then
the personified
human
Adam
as he
the representative and head of the race.

city, the city of the vision
is
He
Jerusalem, the
heavenly
of peace, and
is
travelling toward
Jericho, he
going down toward

(Josh. vi. 26
;
it,
the profane city, the city which
was
under a curse.
Kin. xvi. 34.)
But no sooner has he
man upon
that score
I
/
will take
those charges
on myself;
or
it
might be, Fear
not thou to be a loser
will be thy paymaster.
17
250
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.
forsaken the holy city and the presence of his God, and turned his desires
toward the world, than he
falls
under the power of him who

viii.
is
at
once a robber and a murderer, (John

angels
is
44,) and by
him and
;
his evil
stripped of the robe of his original righteousness

left
nor this
only, but grievously wounded,

strokes, every sin a
full
of
wounds and almost mortal

is
gash from which the life-blood of his soul

at the
copiously
not altogether dead ;f for as all the cares of the good Samaritan would have been expended in vain upon
flowing.*
Yet
is
he
same time
the poor traveller, had the spark of
life
been wholly extinct, so a re-
covery
for
man would have been

no spark of divine
flame
life,
impossible, if there had been nothing
to recover,
which by an heavenly breath might

truth which, though detained in unit.
again be fanned into
no
righteousness, might yet be delivered and extricated from
When
own
for
the
angels
with
fell,
as
it
was by a
free self-determining act of their
will,
no
solicitation
from without, from that moment they were not as

so,
one half-dead, but altogether
and no redemption was possible

still
them.
But man
tions
is
" half dead ;"
he has
little
a conscience witnessing for
God
evil is not his good,

;
however
he
may
be able to resist
its
tempta-
he has
still
the sense that he has lost something, and at times a

lost.
longing for the restoration of the

himself and his
in
His case
is
desperate as concerns
if
own power
to restore himself,
but not desperate,
taken
hand by an almighty and all-merciful Physician.
And who
he has
the law do
else but
such a Divine Physician shall give him back what

?
lost, shall
it ?
heal and bind up the bleeding hurts of his soul
Can
have
The
apostle answers,
life,
it
could not
"
if there
had been
a law which could have given
verily righteousness should

like Elisha's
staff',
been by the law." (Gal.
iii 21.:}:)
The law was

Homo
which
* H. de Sto Victore (Annott. in Luc.)
iste...
.genus designat
humanum,
exilii
quod in piimis parentibus supernam civitatem deserens, in hujus seculi et

eriam per culpam corniens
brose, Exp. in
;
mis-
per antiqui hostis fraudulentiam veste innocentiae et im-
mortalitatis est spoliatum, et originalis culpae vitiis graviter
vulneratum.
6,
See
Amser-
Luc,
1.
7, c.
73
Augustine, Eriarr. in Ps. cxxv.
and the For
mon
{Horn. 34, in Luc.) which Jerome has translated out of Origan.
the later
v.
Gnostic perversions of the parable in this direction, see Neander, Kirch. Gesch.,
5, p. 1121.
t H. de Sto Victore Quamvis enim tanta malitiS possit affici ut nihil diiigat boni Hostilis gladius non tanien ignorantia tanta exciecari potest, ut nihil cognoscat boni hominem penitus non extinxit, dum in eo naturalis boni dignitatem omnino delere
:
non
et
potuit.
Augustine {Qucest. Evang.,
1.
2, qu. 19)
Ex
parte quA potest intelligere

et
cognoscere Deum, vivus est

est.
homo
ex parte qua peccatis contabescit
premitur,
mortuus
I
The
selection of this passage. Gal.
iii.
16-23,
for
the Epistle
on the Sunday
shows
I think,
(the thirteenth after Trinity),
when
this parable
supplies the Gospel,
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

might be
the
laid
251
life
on the face of the dead child, but
did not return to
it
more; (2 Kin. iv. 21;) Elisha himself must come ere the child revive.* Or as Theophylact here expresses it " The law came and
:
stood over
him where he
lay, but then,
overcome by
the greatness of his
wounds, and unable

do better
;
to heal
them, departed."
Nor
could the sacrifices
they could not "
make
the comers thereunto perfect,'' nor " take
away
guilt
sins," nor "
purge the conscience."
The
law, whether natural
Or revealed, could not quicken, neither could the sacrifices truly abolish
and reconcile us unto God.

:
The
priest
and the Levite were alike
powerless to help
nard's, f
so that in the eloquent words of a scholar of St. Berto save.
many
passed us by, and there v/as none
That great
himself justified in the
was Moses passed us bv, for he was not the giver of grace, but of the law, and of that law which
patriarch,
Abraham, passed us
faith
by, for he justified not others, but
of one to come.
leads none to perfection
for righteousness is not
by the law.
Aaron
passed us by, the priest passed us by, and by those sacrifices which he
continually offered, was unable to purge the conscience from dead works
to
serve the living God.
Patriarch and prophet and priest passed us by,
helpless both in will and deed, for they themselves also lay
that
wounded man.
is,
Only
is all
that
true Samaritan beholding

oil into
wounded in was moved

the wounds,
with compassion, as he
that
compassion, and poured

all
till
himself into the hearts, purifying
hearts by failh.
it
Therefore
the faith of the
would not
Church passes by all, (Rom. viii. 3.) pass it by.":}:
reaches him
who
alone
very clearly, the interpretation which the Church puts upon the parable.
pel
The Gos-
and Epistle agree

is
in the
same
thing, that the law cannot quicken, that righte-
ousness
not by
it,
but by faith in Christ Jesus.
* Au(jUSTiNE, Enarr.in Ps. Ixx. 15.

t Gillebert.
His works are
to be
found at the beginning of the ser.ond volume of
the Benedictine edition of St. Bernard.
He
carried on and completed
the exposition
of the Canticles which Bernard had
left
unfinished at bis death.

,
Compare
dn
jrArji/
a noble
airdg 6
passage in Clemens Alex., Quis Dives Salv

Eurijp
; I)
29.
Tis
6'
av liXXoi
7-ij
fiaXXov
fifiSs i.\i!)<jai
tKcivov, Tovi vno rwi/ KO(jfiOKpiir6p(ov tov okotovs oXiyov reda(p60:ns, intdiiniati, d^yuTf, XuTraif, diraTats, riJcwur?
:
vaTutjilvovq TOif jroAXoi's rpavjiaiji^

Se.
tovtcjv
Tcov TpavjioLTiisv jioiio; iarpos 'IijToiif,
iKKOnTwv
apSriv
ra
tiAdri -rrp-p'îâ
ovk Mairap o
vdjinq !//(Aii
rrj;
TO dnoTeXcafiaTa, rovi Kapnovi tmv vovripMV

xaKias TTpoaayayuv
Tpoijievai ipvxc^Si
'
'pvrui-,
dXXa
rriv dîvriv
rnv tavrov irpof rhf jtilaq

-;\;fjj
ovtos b tov oivov,t6 aifta tTs djiviXov tov

ck
AaffiS,
rmTv
Itt'i
rixi
tc-
""fi
(nrXdy^vwv nvevjiaroi cXaiov KpixrcveyKMi/ ku! iKtiaxpiXcvo/tcvos

dXvTovs
iiriSei^'is, dyonTr,v, tt'kttiv, iXiiiia
oiroi b
Tois
TTii
vyeia; Kai
<rb>Tripias Jeo-fcoiif
ovros o iiavoveTv
dyyeXovi Kai dpxî lal lôvoias

diro r<jj fiaTaiorriTos
t
fiptv
vnordâs
riji/
em
^tydXrj
iiiaCu) Si6ti kuI
uvtoI eXevdtpotOiieovTai
tov Koanov jrapa
dwoKuXvipiv
rij; Ja^/jj tcov vluiv
tov Ocov.
c. 2,) in
The argument
that Augustine uses
more than once
(as
Senn. 171,
is
proof
that our Lord intended himself to be understood by this Samaritan,
sinsular.
illi
He
esset
argues thus: Ciim duo essent verba conviciosa objecta Domino, dictumque
252
If
it
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

is
absolutely needful to give a precise
meaning
is
to the oil
and the
wine,
the
we might
say, with Chrysostom, that the wine
the blood of Passion,
oil
the anointing of the
Holy
Spirit.*
On
the binding up of the
wounds, one might observe that the sacraments are often spoken of in
the language of the early Church as the ligaments for the
soul."}"
wounds of the
for the
It is
moreover a common image

his
in the
Old Testament
healing of
all spiritual hurts.:}:
When we
find the
Samaritan setting the
wounded man on
pacing on
foot
own
beast,
and therefore of necessity himself

scarcely help drawing a comparison
by
his side,
we can
with him, who though he was we through his poverty might

to
rich, yet for
our sakes became poor, that
be rich,
be ministered unto, but to minister
the
Son of man who came not

his
"
who
own
self bare our sins in
his
own body."
Neither
is it
far-fetched to see in the inn the figure of
the Church, the place

Samaritanus es
of spiritual refection, in which the healing of
et
:
dffimonium habeo
futavit
:
daemonium habes, poterat respondere Nee Samaritanus sum, nee Quod respondit, rerespondet autem, Ego daemonium non habeo.
:
quod
tacuit, confirmavit.
Cf.
Enarr. in Ps. exxxvi.

;
3.
They were sometimes
interpreted differently
the
oil
as the blanda consolatlo,
the
wine as
sit,
;
the austera increpatio.
Thus Bernard says
of the good pastor: Samarita-
nus
custodiens et observans quando oleum misericordiae, quando
hibeat
and
beautifully,
and
at
:
more
est
length. In Cant., Serm. 44, 3.
vinum fervoris exSo too Gregory
the Great, {Moral., 1.20, e. 5)

et pie saeviens disciplina.
Inesse rectoribus debet et juste consolans misericordia,
Hinc
quod semivivi
et
illius
;
vulneribus, qui a Samaritaut per
no
in
stabulum ductus
est, et
:
vinum adhibetur
oleum
vinum mordeantur
vinum mundentur which in
Utinam, Domine
vulnera, per oleum foveanlur
quatenus unusquisque qui sanandis vulneribus praeest,
in vino
morsum
districtionis adhibeat,in oleo mollitiem pietatis: per
putrida, per
oleum sananda foveantur.

this
And
very beautiful
is
the prayer into

li)
:
another place he has resolved

Jesu, ad
whole history {Exp. in Ps.
me
misericordia motus, digneris accedere, qui descendens ab Jerusalem in
Jericho, proruens scilicet de
summis ad
infima, de vitalibus ad infirma, in angelos
tenebrarum
incidi, qui
non solum
gratiae spiritalis
mihi vestimentum abstulerunt, sed
etiam plagis impositis semivivum reliquerunt.
Utinam peccatorum meorum vulnera,

si
data mihi recuperandae salutis fiducia, alliges, ne dcterius saeviant,
sanari desperent.
Utinam oleum mihi remissionis adhibeas, et vinum compunctionis infundas. Quod si in jumentum tuum me imposueris, de tenk inopem, pauperem de stercore suscitabis.
Tu
Si
es
enim
qui peccata nostra pertulisti, qui pro nobis quae
non rapueras
exsolvisti.
Si in stabulum
me
Ecclesiae tuae duxeris, eorporis et sanguinis tui
me
refectione cibabis.
curam mei
egeria, nee prsEcepta tua praetereo,

tuft,
nee frementiuni rabiem bestiarum inporto.
curro.
Custodia enim
indigeo,
quamdiu carnem banc corruptibilem
Audi
ergo me, Samaritane, spoliatum et vulneratum, flentem et gementem, invocantem et cum David clamantem Miserere mei, Deus, secundiiim magnam misericordiam tuam.
t Augustine not precisely so
:
AUigatio vulnerum est eohibitio peccatorum
the
staunching of the ever-flowing fountain of evil in the heart.

J Cf. Ps. CXlvi. 3.
(LXX)
'O
lionevoi rovi
cvvTCTpiixhovi
Tiiv
KapSiav, Koi icafitiwv
ra
oWTpijUidTOi avT&v.
Lyser
Sue
quasi
incommode nostra commoda
quaesivit.
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

souls
is
253
ever going forward,
by some
called on this last account an

all
hospital,
whither
In
the merciful
Son of man brings
those
whom
he
has rescued from the hand of Satan, and in which he cares for them
evermore.*
forth in Scripture as a
harmony with this we find Christ's work continually set work of healing; for instance, Mai. iv. 2 Hos^
;
xiv.
Ps.
ciii.
Matt.
xiii.
15
Rev.
xxii.
and typically,
Num.
to
xxi. 9.
And
if,
like the Samaritan,
who was
it
obliged on the
morrow
take
his departure,!
he
is
not always in body present with those
whose cure
he has begun,
if for
other reasons
is
expedient even for them that he
should go away, yet he

ing his absence, and
till
makes
a rich provision of grace for
them dur-
the time of his
coming again.
to
It
would be en-
tering into curious minutise,
which rather tend
bring discredit on this
scheme of
interpretation, to affirm decidedly of the
two pence, that they
mean
either the two sacraments, or the two testaments, or the
word and
the sacraments, or unreservedly to accede to
any other of the ingenious

It
is
explanations which have been offered for them.
sufficient that
they signify
all
gifts
and graces, sacraments, powers of healing, of
left with his Church him till his return. As the Samaritan look out two pence and gave them to the host, and said, " Take care of Mm;" even so the Lord Jesus said unto Peter, and in him, to all his
remission of sins, or other powers which Christ has
to
enable
it
to
keep house
for
fellow
apostles,
having
first
promised unto them heavenly

" Feed
gifts,
and
richly furnished
them
for
their work,
my
sheep," " Feed
my
lambs."
mitted an
To
them, and in them
to all that
succeed them, he has com-
economy of
the truth, that as stewards of the mysteries of
God, they
may
dispense those mysteries as shall seem best for the
health and salvation of his people.
And
as
it
was
said to the host,

/":}:
" Whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee
so the
Lord has promised

is
that no labour shall be in vain in

to the
him
that
he will count what
done
least of his brethren, as
done unto
him
that they
who
" feed the flock of God," not by constraint but will-
ingly
not for filthy lucre, but of a ready
mind,"
they, "
when
the
chief Shepherd shall appear," " shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not
away."
(1 Pet. v. 2, 4.)
* Augustine brings out another side of the similitude

reficiuntur viatores de
{navSo'xûov),
Stabulum
est Ecclesia, ubi

;
peregrinatione redeuntes in aeternam patriam
or
it is
an inn
because (Origen, Horn. 34 in Luc.) universes volentes introire suspiciat.

:
degere
X
Ambrose {Exp. in Luc, 1. 7, c. 78) Non vacabat Samaritano huic redeundum eo erat, unde descenderat.
;
:
diu in terris
Melanclhon
Si
quid supererogaveris, solvam
quasi dicat
te.
Accedunt labores,
pericula, inopia consilii, in his
omnibus adero
et
juvabo
Cyprian's apph'cation of the parable {Ep. 51) forms a sort of connecting link be-
254
It is difficult
THE GOOD SAMARITAN.

enough
to
admire the divine wisdom with which the
Saviour, having brought to an end tht affecting parable, reverses the

question of the lawyer, and asks, "
thou loas neighbour unto him that fell
Which now of these among the thieves ?"
three
thinkest
The lawyer
had asked, " who is the neighbour to whom I am bound to show the serBut the Lord asks, " Who is a neighbour, he who shows vice of love ?"
love, or he
who shows
it
not?"
to
for herein lay the great lesson, that

its
it is
not the object which
is
determine the love, but that love has
own
measure
shine,
in itself;
it
it is
like the
or what
shall
sun which does not ask on what it shall warm, but shines and warms by the very law
is
of
its
its
own
being, so that there
nothing hidden from
its
light
and from
;
heat.
marks a
The lawyer had man to be such ?

what
else, that
said, "
is it
Declare
faith,
to
me my neighbour
what
one
benefits, or
may know
so
far
to
one blood, the bonds of mutual whom I owe this debt of love ?"
The Lord rebukes
the question by holding up before
him a man, and
this
a despised Samaritan,
who
from asking that question, freely and
largely exercised love towards one
who
certainly had none of the signs
such as the lawyer conceived would mark out a neighbour in his sense
of the word.
is
The
parable
is
a reply, not to the question, for to that
it
no reply,* but
to the spirit
out of which the question proceeded.

?
I
It
says,
"You
ask
who
is
your neighbour
will
show you a man who
asked not that question, and then your
own
heart shall be judge between
you and him, which had most of the mind of God, which was most truly
the doer of his will, the imitator of his perfections."
The
parable
is
an
be
appeal to a better principle in the querist's heart, from the narrow and
unloving theories and systems in which he had been trained.
It is to
hoped that through no unwillingness
to
acknowledge the
truth,
though
tween these two interpretations, the

persecution.
to readmit
literal
and the
allegorical
the
wounded man
is
sinning brother, in this particular case one
who had
not stood stedfast in the time of
Cyprian,
to
who
desired to follow the milder course with these lapsed,

frater
and
them
Church communion, exclaims: Jacet ecce saucius
ab adver-
sario in acie vulneratus.

liortatur ne in
Inde diabolus conatur occidere, quem vulneravit, hinc Christus
totum pereat quem redemit.
Cui de duobus assistemus, in cujus parti-
bus stamus?
Utrumne diabolo favemus

et
ut perimat, et
semianiniem fratrem jacentem,
sicut in evangelio
Christi,
sacerdos et Leviles, praeterimus?
An
vero ut sacerdotes Dei et
quod Christus
docuit et fecit imitantes, vulneratum de adversarii faucibus

Cf.
rapimus, ut curatum Deo judici reservemus.
Ambrose, De
Poenit.,
1.
1, c.
and
Chrysostom, Adv. Jud., Oral. 8, 3. * Maldonatus is the only commentator

acknowledged
the difficulty
have seen who has
fairly put this,
and
which
is
on the face of the parable.
It is
one of the
many
it,
merits of this most intolerant and most abusive Jesuit, (Maldonatus maledicentissimus,)
that he never slights a difficulty, nor pretends not to see
it,
but fairly and fully states
whether he can lesolve
it
or not.
THE FRIEND AT MIDNIGHT.

it
255
to the
has
something of that appearance, the lawyer in reply
Lord's
question,
Who was
to
this
poor man's true neighbour

hi/n ;^'
circuitously replies,
"He
ivho
showed mercy on
grudging
to
give the honour directly

this,
and by name
a Samaritan.*
But having acknowledged
whether
trust
grudgingly or freely, " Go,'' said the Lord to him, now
we
an
humbler and larger-hearted man, " Go, and do thou likewise." These last words will hardly allow one to agree with those, who
later times
to
it,
in
have maintained that
this
parable and the discourse that led
are in fact, a lesson on justification by faith
that
the
Lord sent
the questioner to the law, to the end that, being by that convinced of sin
and of
his
own
short-comings, he might discover his need of a Saviour.

to
His intention seemed rather
make
the
lawyer aware of the great gulf
which lay between
his
knowing and
his doing,
how
little
his actual ex-
ercise of love kept pace with his intellectual
of love due from him
to his
fellow-men
acknowledgment of the debt on which subject no doubt he
had secret misgivings himself, when he asked, "

It is
Who is my neighbour ?"

we cannot
live
true indeed that this our sense of
how
short our practice falls of our
knowledge, must bring us
to the conviction that
by the
keeping of the law, that by the deeds of the law no

so that here also
:
flesh shall be justified
we
shall get at last to faith as that

it
which alone can

to
justify
but this
is
a remoter consequence, not, as
seems
me, the
immediate purpose of the parable.
PAKABLE
XVIII.
THE FRIEND AT MIDNIGHT

The
easy
connexion between
to be traced.
this parable
and the words that go before

to be
is
The
disciples
had asked
taught in what words

his dis-
they should pray, " Lord, teach us

ciples."
to pray, as
John also taught
He
graciously gives them that perfect form which has ever
since been the treasure of the
Church
but having done so, he instructs
them
rit
also
by this parable
faith,
in
what
spirit
they must pray, even
in the spiis
of persevering
" continuing instant in prayer."
There
the
same argument
* So Bengel
as in the parable of the Unjust Judge, one from the less
Non
invitus abstinet legisperitus appellatione propria Samaritae.
256
to the greater, or

more accurately, from the worse
to the
better,
but
with this difference, that here the narrow. heartedness and selfishness of
man
is set
against the liberality of God, while there

is
it is
his unrighte-
The won by prayer and importunity to give, and unjust man to do right, how much more certainly shall the And perbountiful Lord bestow, and the righteous Lord do justice.*
ousness which
conclusion
is,
tacitly contrasted
with the righteousness of God.
if selfish
man can
yet be
haps there
is this
further difference, that here

in
it is
intercessory prayer,
to
prayer
there
for the
needs of others,
which we are bidden
be instant
while
it is
rather for our
own
needs.
Yet must we not urge
in either
it
case, the illustration so far, as to conceive of prayer as though
were
an overcoming of God's reluctance, when it is, in fact, a laying hold of For though there is an aspect under which his highest willingness. f
God may
present himself
io us,
is
similar to that of the Unjust Judge and
this churlish neighbour, yet
there ever this difference,
that his is a
seeming neglect and unwillingness to grant, theirs a real.
Under such
an aspect of seeming unwillingness to hear, did the merciful Son of man But present himself to the Syro-Phcenician woman. (Matt. xv. 21.)
why
her
faith
Not because he was reluctant to was strong enough to bear this
give, but because he

trial,
knew
that
and that
in the end,
though
to her,
the trial for the
moment might be
it
hard,
;
it
would prove a blessing

In like
more mightily
calling out that faith
since faith ever needs to find
resistance, before
can be called out in any strength.
some manner
the angel of the Lord, the great Covenant Angel, contended with Jacob,
and wrestled with him overcome by him, and

forth into
all
the night, yet allowed himself at the last to be
left
a blessing behind him

lifted
and Jacob hencethat conflict
was
Israel, that
state,
is,
was permanently
up through
an higher
bore,
"
marked by
for as a
Prince hast
name which henceforth he thou power with God and with men, and
that nobler
to
hast prevailed."
(Gen. xxxii. 28.)
The
parable with which
now we have
life
;
do rests on an humble and

to
familiar incident of our
common
8)
:
and spoken
si
humble men,
it
may
* Augustine (Ep. 130,
c.
Ut hinc
intelligerenius,
dare cogitur, qui cilm dor-
miat, a petente excitatur invitus, quanto det benignius, qui nee dormire novit, et dor-
mientes nos excitat ut pelamus.

t
This
is finely
expressed by Dante {Parad.

:
1.
20), in
words which have as much
a theological as a poetical interest
Regnuni ccelorum violenzia pate
Da
caldo amore e da viva speranza,

la
Che vince
divina volontate,
1'
Non
a guisa che
uomo
all'
uom
sovranza.
Ma vince lei, E vinta vince
perche vuole esser vinta,
con sua beninanza.
;,

:
257
easily have come within the limits of their own experience " Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves : for a friend of mine in his journey is
come to me, and I have nothing
to set
before him
do not see in these
words any deeper meaning than lies on the surface ; yet it is well worth observing that they have afforded ample scope for allegorical and mystical interpretations,
and some of these of considerable beauty.

is
For
in-
stance,
it
has been said that the guest newly arrived

its
the spirit of
man,
be-
which, weary of
enly sustenance,
wanderings
in the world,
of a sudden desires heavit,
something
that will truly nourish and satisfy
gins to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

in so far as he is " sensual,
But the
host, that
is,
man,
having not the Spirit," has nothing
to set be-
fore this unexpected guest, and in this his spiritual poverty

is
and
distress,*
here taught
is
to
appeal unto God, that from him he
may
receive that
which
is,
bread indeed, and spiritual nourishment for the soul.f
There
to
besides, another interesting adaptation of the parable,
which Augusgive
tine gives.
He
is
urging upon his hearers the duty of being able

faith,
a reason for their
a reason not merely defensive, but one which

:
and this, because it might often happen that shall win and persuade some one from the yet heathen world, or it might be an heretic, or even a nominal Catholic, weary of his wanderings in eri'or, weary of the bon-
dage of sin, and desiring now

betake himself
to
to
know something of the Christian

to
faith,
but
lacking confidence or opportunity
go
to the
bishop or catechists, might

fuller instruction in the
some one of them, desiring
* " At 7nidnight :" In media, tribulatione constitutus.

t
Augustine.
ipse noster est
Bede (Horn,
in
Luc.
xi.)
Amicus
qui venit de
et
via,,
animus, qui
Redit
toties a nobis recedit, qnoties
ad appetenda terrena
temporalia foris vagatur.
ergo, cceleslique alimonia refici desiderat,

tualia meditari.
cum
in se reversus superna ccEperit ac spiri-
De quo
pulchrfe qui petierat. adjungit, se
non habere quod ponant ante
ilium,
quoniam animae post
seculi tenebras
Deum
suspiranti, nil prseter

:
eum
cogitare
nilque libet intueri.
And
Bernard {In Eogat., Serin.)

cilim
Amicum
venientem ad me,
Venit
non alium
rire solebat.
intelligo
quam meipsum,
transitoria deserens,
et
ad cor redeo.
amicus de regione longinqua, ubi pascere porcos,

Venit fame laborans, sed heu
ipsorum siliquas insatiabiliter esueligit
me
pauperem
hospitem, et vacuum
?
ingreditur habitaculum.
est,
Quid faciam huic amico misero Quid

venisti
et miserabili
Fateor amicus
Festina,
sed ego mendicus.
ad me, amice, in necessitate tanta,?

ilium
inquit, discurre, suscita
amicum tuum
habet, sed neque substantiam ampliorem.
magnum, quo majorem dilectionem nemo Clama et die. Amice, commoda mihi tres
1.
panes.
Compare Augustine
{QutEst. Evang.,
2, qu. 21)
and a discourse which
is
not Augustine's, but has sometimes been attributed to him, (Serm. 85, Appendix,)
where
to the
the explanation given, at
first
sight
seems
slightly different, but in reality
comes
same
thing.
Every good
desire, visiting the soul

after
and awakening
in
it
an hunger
and
thirst after righteousness,
a longing
God,
is
the guest from the
way, whose
hunger can only be
satisfied
by spiritual nourishment,
by the bread from heaven.
258
faith.

While
to
this
was
possible,
;
he therefore urges upon
all,
that they
have what
nothing
communicate
to
or
if,
when such occasion

them out of
this
arises,
when such
a friend comes
to set
them, craving spiritual hospitality, they find they have

parable what they
before him, he instructs

to
should do, and

their
whom
they should betake themselves for the supply of
own needs and
the needs of their friend,
that they
go
to
God,
praying that he would teach them, that so they might be enabled to teach
others.*
Vitringa's explanation f
is
;
a modification of this last.

the host
With
him
the guest is the heathen world
who
receives him, the ser-
vants and disciples of Jesus,
who
are taught from this parable that they

to
can only nourish those that come

solicit
them with bread of
life,
as they
themselves shall receive the same from God, which therefore they must
with
all
perseverance and constancy of supplication,

it
at all
events
a most important truth, whether

that
is
ij:
here
have
to feed the flock
of Christ.
be found or not, for those " In like manner in the " three
to
it
loaves various Scriptural triads have been traced, as for instance,
has
sometimes been said that the host craving the three loaves, craves the
knowledge of the Trinity, of God

it is
in his three persons,^
sometimes again
the three choicest gifts and graces of the Spirit, faith, hope, and
charity, which he desires
When
it
may be his.|| he from within replies, " Trouble me

closed
is
;
means evidently more than merely

unseasonable hour
in bed,
I
not, the door is now shut;'' he would say, " The door
is
fastened, barred, and bolted, the house
made up
for the night,
and
at this
cannot disturb
my
children,
who
me
are
now
with
last
me
by rising and giving thee."
Theophylact makes these

in
words yet further significant;

Serm. 105,
c.
"My
children are ivith
bed;"
om-
2: Venit
tibi
amicus de
vi&,, id est,
de vita hujus seculi, in quS,
nes velut peregrini transeunt, nee ullus quasi possessor manet: sedomni homini dicitur,
Refectus
es, transi,age iter,da
venturo locum.
Aut
fortfe
de
via,
mala, hoc
est,
de vita
mala, fatigatus nescio quis amicus tuus, non inveniens veritatem, qua audita
beatus
fiat
:
et
percepta
sed lassatus in omni cupiditate et egestate seculi, venit ad

miiii
te,
tanquam ad
Christianum, et dicit: Redde

fortfe tu
rationem, fac
me
Christianum.
Et inlerrogat quod
per simplicitatem fidei ncsciebas, et non est unde reficias esurientem, et te ad-
monitus invenis indigentem.

quid deserendus est
?
Tibi
fortfe
sufficiebat simplex fides,

?
illi
non
sufficit.
Nun-
nunquid de domo projiciendus
Ergo ad ipsum Doniinum, ad
ipsum cum quo familia

Augustine
requiescit, pulsa orando, pete, insta.

p.
t Erklar. d. Parab.,
t
:
763.
;
Unde
vivo, inde dice
unde pascor, hoc ministro.

Bernard,
v. 2, p.
1.
Compare a
ser-
mon
II
by Guerricus,
in the Benedict, edit, of St.

cii.
1023.
Augustine, Enarr. in Ps.
5.
Qumst. Evang.,
2, c. 21.
:
Thauier gives an ingenious reason,

pretiosa
why
it
should be rather charity alone
Ut
enim quamlibet
bilia sunt
mundi
cibaria neque
utilia,
neque jucunda, neque comestasi
absque pane,
ita
etiam quidquid agas Deo non multiim placet,
absque cari-
tate
fiat.
Euthymius
'Aprovj
ruj OptimKas
twv \pv^wv iiiaaKoKiai.

that
is,
259
" All
who by
earlier application to
me
have obtained right to be
called
my
is
children, have secured their admission into
my
kingdom, and
are
now
resting with
me
The
there
it is
too late to apply, the door is closed,
the time
past."*
lesson to be here learned would then be this,
that through earnest importunate prayer, even lost opportunities
may
be
made up and recovered.^ " / say unto you, Though

many
term;
as he needeth."
he will not rise
his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise
and give him, because he is and give him as

^'importunity,"
Our
version, translating
has
rather softened the original word, which might be rendered by a stronger

it
\s \\\s
'^
shamehssness'"\
yv\\\c\\
extorts the gift.

to the
At
the
same
is
time, the shamelessness
which
is
here attributed
it
petitioner
greatly mitigated by the consideration, that

another, and that he
tality, that
is
not for himself but for
may
not be wanting in the sacred duties of hospi-
he so pertinaciously urges his request.
Through
to,
this per-
tinacity
II
he at length obtains, not merely the three which he asked, but

he needeth," like that
" as
the
many as
Lord
woman
already referred
all his
from
to
at first
seemed
full
to
have shut up
compassion, but
whom whom
at last
he opened the
treasure-house of his grace, and bid her to help

is
herself, saying, "
woman, great
thy faith
be
it
unto thee even as

at
first
thou wilt."
Augustine too observes, that he who would not
so
all
much
as
send one of his house, himself

;
now
rises,
and supplies
the wants of his friend
and adds on the return of prayers not being

this.
always immediate many excellent observations, as
When
;
sometimes
;
God
gives tardily, he
commends
his
gifts,
he does not deny them
Things long desired, are more sweet

* Augustine
et in
:
in their
obtainment
those quickly
Dies
Quid
pulsas sine tempore, qui piger fuisti

et
cum tempore
fuit,
lumine non ambulasti, nox supervenit,

It is possible that
pulsare ccEpisti.
lated " servants,"
the word which we translate " children" would be fitter transand the sense then would be, " I cannot myself come, and I have
;
none whom
dormientem
t
can send
my
household as well as myself are gone to rest."

:
It is
clear
that ra naiSia has been so understood by Augustine (Ep. ]30,c. 8)

petitor instantissimus et molestissimus excitavit.
Jam
cu7n suis servis
'AvaiScia.
The Vulgate
from which
gives
it
by an happily chosen word, improbitas, which,
like the adjective
it is
derived,
may
describe unweariedness in a good cause
as well as in a bad.
In
the
same manner Abraham's conversation with God, (Gen.

rises into a like dvaiStia, is not the
xviii.
23-33,)
which almost
asking anything
for himself,
but inter-
cession for the people of

II
Sodom.
cii.
Jews have a
dentia etiam
p.
proverb, Impudentia est
coram Deo proficit. 45) has some interesting remarks on

which
is
The Extorsit taedio quod non possit merito. regnum sine corona and again they say, ImpuVon Meyer (Blatter filr hOhere Wahrheit, v. 5,
5))
:
;
the ai/aiiîa of this petitioner,
and how
it is
recon-
cilable with the humility
praised in the publican.
(Luke
xviii. 13.)
260

;
given, soon lose their value

gifts, that
and
all
again,
God
for a
time withholds his
thou mayest learn to desire great things greatly.*

called into e.xercise
Faith,
and
patience, and humility, are
by
this
temporary
faint,
its
denial of a request.
It is
then seen
who
will
pray always and not

it
and who
prey
will prove but as
the leopard, which if
does not attain
at the first spring, turns sullenly
repeat the attempt. |
back and cannot be induced to The parable concludes with words in which the
same duty of prayer

plainly
:
is
commended, and now no longer

it
in a figure, but
" Arid I say unto you, Ask, and

it
shall be given you ; seek,
and
ye shallJind; knock, and

titions of the
command
and
are
untoyou"X The three repemore than mere repetitions; since to seek is

shall he opened
to
is
more than
to ask,
to
knock than
seek
and thus in
this
ascending
scale of earnestness, an exhortation

to increasing
given, not merely to prayer, but

till
urgency
in prayer,
even
the suppliant carry

is
away
the
blessing which he requires, and which
God
only waiting for the due
time
All that we have here is indeed to arrive that he may give him. a commentary on words of our Lord spoken at another time, " The
suffereth violence,
kingdom of heaven
and the violent take
it
by force."
Cum
aliquando tardius dat,

;
commendat dona.non
negat.
Diil desiderata dulcius
and again, Ut discas magna magne desiderare. Sunt multi qui naturae sunt et conditionis ieonispardi, qui si primo saltu t Stella Ita isti sunt qui rel secundo non assequitur praedam, non amplius earn insequitur.
obtinentur, cito data vilescunt
:
primS, oratione vel secunda.

nota, signantur.
t
non exauditi, protinus ab oratione cessant,

2, c. 21)
et impatientiae
Augustine {De Serm. Dom. in Mon.,
1.
had made only one of these

to prayer,
three
commands (Matt.
to other
vii.
7)
to
have direct reference
while the other
two he referred
forms of earnest striving after the kingdom of
God
but
in
his Retractations he says,
no doubt more accurately
Ad
instantissimam orationem
omnia
matter.
referuntur.
Their position in relation to
this parable leaves
no doubt on the
Augustine
Deus ad hoc
se peti vult, ut capaces
donorum
ejus fiant, qui petuntj
and again
Non
dat nisi petenti, ne det non capienti.
THE RICH FOOL.
261
PARABLE
XIX.
THE RICH FOOL.

Luke
xii.
16-2L
In the midst of one of our Lord's most interesting discourses an interruption occurs.
ritual truths
One
of his hearers had so slight an interest in the spiso

to
which he was communicating, but had the redressing of a wrong, which he believed himself
in his worldly interests, that, as
much
at heart
have sustained
would seem, he could not wait for a more convenient season, but broke in upon the Lord's teaching with that request which gave occasion for this parable, " Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me." It has been sometimes
taken for granted, that
this
man who
desired a division of the inherit-
ance, had no right to what he

to
make an
unfair use of the
was here claiming, and was only seeking Saviour's influence. But how much does
especial
that love
this supposition
teaching, would
weaken the moral. All men, without any condemn such unrighteousness as this. But
itself
of the world, which, keeping

yet takes
all
within limitsof decency and legality,
the affections of the heart from God, and robs divine things
of
all
their interest
against that
is
men have need
to
be continually
warned; and such a warning
here,
a warning, not against unright-
eousness, but against covetousness ;* for this
may
display itself in the
manner and temper in which we hold and reclaim our own as truly as in the undue snatching at that of others " Take heed and beware of covetousness. "]" From this man's confident appeal to Jesus, made in
:
the presence of the whole multitude,
it is
probable that his brother did

fell
withhold from him a part of the patrimony, which

share.
justly to his
But
it
was
the extreme inopportuneness of the season which he
* Not d6tKia, but

enough, as the
TrXeoveîa.
It is
exactly opposed to the avrdpKtta, which has always
rr\cuvcîa
has never.
The emphasis on
diceres,
si
t In the Vulgate, Cavete ab omni avariti&,. So Lachmann, d-rrd vdcrn; Tr'Xcoi'eîas. this " all" is strikingly brought out by Augustine, (Serm. 107, c. 3,)
as though Christ were herein saying to each that stood by, Forte tu avarumet cupidum
qusereret aliena
;
Ego autem
:
dico cupide et avar^

ille
non appetas nee tua....Non
solium avarus est qui rapit aliena
sed et
avarus est qui cupide servat sua.
262
THE RICH
FOOL.
chose for urging his claim, that showed him as one in

ly prevailed to the danger of
ritual,
whom
the world-
making him
totally irreceptive of the spilips
and that drew
this
warning from the
of the Lord.
For
that
he should have desired Christ as an umpire or arbitrator,

only the word
14,)
and
such
in the original means, (see Acts vii. 27, 35 ; Exod. ii. such too the Lord, without publicly recognized authority, could
only have been*
this in
itself
had nothing
sinful.
St.
Paul himself
recommended
this
manner of
settling differences, (1 Cor. vi. 1-6,)
and
how weighty
a burden this arbitration afterwards became to the bishops

is
of the Church
well known.
In the request itself there
was nothing
sinful, yet still the
Lord abtrue,
solutely refused to accede to it; he declined here, as in every other

case, to interfere in the affairs of civil
that his
life. It
was indeed most
word and doctrine received
into the hearts of
men, would modify
and change the whole framework of

life
Viâs
civil society, that his
word and
itself,
his
it
was
the seed out of which a Christendom would evolve

to the
but
from the inward
outward that he would work.
His adversa-
ries
diction
more than once sought to thrust upon him the exercise of a juriswhich he so carefully avoided, as in the case of the woman taken
in adultery, (supposing that passage to belong to the true Gospel of St.
John,)
as in that of the
Roman
tribute.
But each time he avoided the
snare which was laid for him, keeping himself within the limits of the
moral and spiritual world, as that from which alone effectual improve-
ments
in the outer life of
man
:
could proceed.:}:
* Grotius explains
finibus regundis arbiter sumiter.

Tftv,
into his text.

the
familiae herciscundae, communi dividuncio, aut Lachmann has admitted Kpirnv, in the place oi iixaaSee Tertullian {Adv. Marc, 1. 4, c. 28) for the reasons which
ficpiarni
Qui
moved
Lord here
to use the very phrase

;
with which the Israelite
(Exod.
ii.
14)
put back the arbitration of Moses
and
in
Hammond's Paraphrase
say to those
(in loc.)
t Augustine (Enarr. in Fs. cxviii. 115) complains of this distraction from spiritual objects,
and
that he
was not allowed
to
who came
you
?"
to
him with cases
for arbitration,"
Who made me
especially
a judge or a divider over
And
Bernard, writing
to
Pope Eugenius,
warns him against

15
this distraction
of mind, arising from
the multitude of these worldly causes which would be brought before him.
t
The
latter part of ver.
is difficult,
not that there
is
any
difficulty in tracing
is
the connexion of thought, or the meaning, but that the sentence
more bijfdened
Euthymius,
with words than can be conveniently taken up into the construction.

Theophylact, and others, and in modern times Paulus, would
make
this the
meaning:
his
When
man
;
possesses
possessions
in short,
life.
much abundance, yet is not his man, though he is rich, cannot
(bodily)
live
life
one
among
for ever, or.
Riches will
it
not lengthen his

suits well
It
may
certainly be said in favour of this explanation, that

follows,
enough with the parable which
and
it
might pass,
if it
were
^(ofi
this
kind
of
flat
morality which our Lord were in the habit of inculcating, or
if
were ever
life,
in Scripture degraded to this lower dense,
and used
to designate the
mere
soulish
THE RICH FOOL.

The Lord having
which
is
263
uttered
a warning against covetousness, a sin
always united with the trusting in uncertain riches, (1 Tim. vi. 17,) for who that did not trust in them as a source of good, as a means of blessedness, would be so eager in their accumulation ? he
proceeds
to
show by
a parable the folly of such trust,
how, though
For, besides
man
is
ever dreaming that these worldly goods are the source of happi-
ness, and is thus
drawn
to trust in
them, rather than in the living God,
yet in truth they cannot constitute a man's blessedness.

other reasons, that only
is
blessedness,
life,
which has
is
in
it
security and en-
durance
but that earthly
which
the necessary condition
of
drawing enjoyment out of worldly abundance,
may come
to to
an end at
any moment, and then

rich toward God.
'^
will ensue utter loss
and destitution
him who
to
has thus been laying up treasure for himself, instead of seeking
be
The ground of a
i.
certain rich
man
brought forth plentifully."
It
was
'
said long before, "
The
prosperity of fools shall destroy them,"
(Prov.
32,) a truth to which this
man
sets his seal,
for his prosperity
ensnares him in a deeper worldliness, draws out the selfish propensities

of his heart into stronger action.*
In this respect
how deep
might, at
know-
ledge of the
human
heart the warning of the Psalmist displays, "^Jf
riche s increase, set not thy heart up on
them ."
It
first sight,
appear, that the time
our heart
when we should be in chiefest danger of setting upon riches, would be when we saw them escaping from our
from under our hand.
that earthly losses are the
gra^,
the contrary,
perishing
It is
But all experience testifies remedy for covetousness while
the xpvx^ture
it
much
better to take
/;
ôifi
here in that deeper sense, which in Scripblessedness; and then with Schultz {6. d.
has ever, as man's true Hfe,

p.
his
Parabel vom Vorwalter,
79) to put a
comma
to
before and after

(e^ r.
tf
tu
Trepiaaeietii
rtv'i),
nvl,
and
translate thus:
When
man comes
have abundance
wcpicr.
his life will be
(his true life,
his blessedness) does not
grow out of
his worldly goods.
Thus
preserved
all
the force of the preposition ex, expressing the springing up or the

; ; ;
growing
out of one thing from another, (see

at
Luke xvi. 9 Acts i. 18 John iii. 5, 6 xviii. 36, kingdom grows not out of an earthly root,) and The sudden taking away of the rich then the parable is brought in confirmation. worldling's goods, or which comes to the same thing, his sudden taking away from them, shows that his life, his true blessedness, was not froin them, that he had made a fearful mistake in supposing that it was since the very idea of blessedness involves
which
last place the
Lord
asserts, his
that of permanence, not of
something that
to a
;
may
slip
from under a man's

life,
feet
at
any
a
moment, which an happiness linked

duration of that
life, is
^<ji)
merely earthly
and dependent upon the

a
a blessed-
ever liable to do
is
and then,
at the conclusion of the parable,

TrXoDTEti/ eis Oc6i',
life,
glimpse of the true

ness,
opened
to
us as being a
it is
which
is
eternal as the
tibi
God upon whom
built.
Ambrose: Dat
fcecunditatem Deus, ut aut vincat aut condemnet avaritiam
tuam.
264
increase in worldly goods
THE RICH FOOL.

is
that
which chiefly provokes
to
it,
serving,
not as water to quench, but as fuel to augment, the
fire :*
"
He
that
loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abund-
ance with increase." (Eccl. v. 13.) St. Basil, in the opening of his " There are two manners noble sermon f upon this parable, observes of temptations, either afflictions torment the heart, as gold in the fur:
nace, through the
trial
of faith working patience, or often the very pros-
perities of life are to
many in place of other temptation." But it seems a certain exaggeration when he explains, as many others have done, the following words, " he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do .?"
as though they were the utterance of one brought to sore straits and dif-
ficulties
through the very abundance,
for the
sake of which others were

that
envying him,
as though they were the anxious deliberations of one
was now at his wit's end, and knew not which way he should turn, who was in as painful perplexity through his riches as others are through
their poverty.:}:
Rather we should say, that the curtain

are admitted into the inner
is
here drawn back, and
we
council-chamber of a worldling's heart,
rejoicing over his abundance, and realizing to the very letter the
makhe
ing "provision for the flesh
to
fulfil
is
the lusts thereof."

his perplexity
:
As
far as
may
be said
to
to
be perplexed, this
"
/ have no room
where
bestow
my fruits.^'
It
has been well answered to him, "
Thou
hast barns,
the
bosoms of the needy,
the houses
of the widows,
the
mouths of orphans and of infants. " If he had listened to the prudent admonition of the sonof Sirach, (xxix. 12,) "Shut up alms in thy storehouses," he would not have found his barns too narrow.
To
one thus
ignorant where to bestow his goods and so in danger of losing them,
* Plutarch in his excellent

the line,
little
treatise,
Uepi
(piKon'Xov-iai,
applies to the covetous
Xo
and
the
satiat.
(pdpfiaKov cov T>V v6(Tov
jjei^Ci}
ttouT,
:
same truth is confessed in the Latin proverb Avaium Compare Seneca, Ad. Helv., c. 11 and the fine Eastern
;
irritat
pecunia, non
tale
c.
of Abdallah, the
4.
v. 2, p.
camel-driver, has the
same moral.
Turbavit
See also Augustine, Serm. 50,

:
t Ed. Bened., Paris, 1722, v. 2, p. 43

t
and
in the
new
Paris reprint,
60.
So Augustine
:
hominem
copia plusquam inopia.
And
Grotius quotes
1.
in this view
c.
Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam.

!
Thus
too Gregory (Moral.,
15,
22)
angustia ex satietate nata

?
De
ubertate agri angustatur animus avari.
Dicens namque. Quid faciam

sus sub
profecto indicat quia votorum
suorum
affectibus pres-
quodam rerum
fasce laborabat.
But Unger's
is
a better account of these words
Opulentum
(j
describit parabola elatl deliberantem.

c. 7)
:
Ambrose {De Nohuthe,

There
is c. 9.
Habes apothecas, inopum

on
sinus,
viduarum domus,
Cf.
era infaniium.
much
else that is excellent
this parable.
Augustine,
Serm. 3G,
THE RICH FOOL.

Augustine gives
this earnest aflTectionate
265
:
admonition
"
God
desires not
their
that thou shouldst lose thy riches, but that thou shouldst
change
place; he has given thee a counsel, which do thou understand.
Sup-
pose a friend should enter thy house, and should find that thou hadst
lodged thy fruits on a
damp
floor,
and he, knowing by chance the
ten-
dency of those
fruits to spoil,
whereof thou wert ignorant, should give

thou hast placed them in a
;
thee counsel of this sort, saying, Brother, thou losest the things which
thou hast gathered with great labour

place
;
damp
I
in a
few days they will corrupt
do
Raise
floor,
them
to
a higher
room
listen
thou wouldst
to
And what,
brother, shall
listen to thy bro-
ther suggesting that thou shouldst raise thy fruits from a lower to a
higher
and thou wilt not

to
Christ advising that thou raise
thy treasure from earth

to thee
heaven, where that will not indeed be restored

for
which thou layest up,
he would have thee lay up earth that
thou mayest receive heaven, lay up perishable things that thou mayest
receive eternal."*
This would have been

to
his
wisdom, but he determines otherwise
not
provide thus for himself " bags which

faileth not," (ver. 33,)
wax
not old, a treasure in the
heaven which
but on the contrary, "

there will
down my barns and
build greater,
and
I bestow
all
''
/ will pull my fruits and

another
folly,
my goods."
God,
" Observe," says Theophylact on these words,

fruits,
7ny goods, and 7ny

else, as a
for
he did not count that he had these from
steward of God, he would otiierwise have disposed of
them, but he counted them the products of his

separating them exclusively for himself, he said,
own labours, wherefore my goods, and ?n?/ fruits."
Yet according
this
;
to the
world's judgment there

fairly
got,"]"
his riches
were
to suit the present occasion.
was nothing sinful in all makes the example the better Nor yet was there anything which the
and
this
in the decent
world condemns in the plans which he laid out for his future enjoyment, Epicureanism which he meditated ; " / loillsay to my soul,
Soul, thou hast
drink,
and
be
merry."
much goods laid up for many years ; take thine ease, eat, Having now at last, as he imagines, secured himto
self against everything that could disturb his felicity, he determines to

rest
from his labours,
enjoy that ease and quiet from which hitherto
the anxious acquisition of wealth had hindered

in another parable, to fare
ty,
it
him;
like the rich
man
sumptuously every day.

to this
it is
His plans of
felici-
may
be observed, rise no higher than
satisfying of the flesh,

in
so that there is an irony as
melancholy as
profound
making him
* Enarr. in Fs.
xlviii. 9.
c.
Cf.
Enarr. in Ps. xxxviii.
6.
t Augustine {Serm. 178,
2):
Non
limite perturbalo,
non
spoliato paupere,
non
circumvento simplice.
18
266
THE RICH FOOL.
address this speech, not to his body, but to his soul
to that soul,
which
though thus capable of being dragged down into the basest service of the flesh, imbodied and imbruted, was also capable of being infornaed by the
Divine
Spirit,
and of knowing and loving and glorifying God.
He
expects he shall thus nourish his soul "for
many
years," (see Sito
rac. V. 1,) he boasts not
merely of to-morrow, but of many years
come
he expects, as Job did once, to multiply his days as the sand ; his felicity shall not soon come to an end, but to-morrow shall be as to-day, and
much more
is that
abundant.*
Compare with
all this
the words of the son of

:
Sirach, (xi. 18, 19,) forming as they do a remarkable parallel
"
There
waxeth rich by his weariness and pinching, and this is the porwhereas he saith, I have found rest, and now will tion of his reward and yet he knoweth not what time shall eat continually of my goods
:
come upon him, and

given him
"
that he
Therefore deserves he the appellation of

;
must leave those things to others and die," fool which immediately after is
him, TJiou fool, this night thy soul shall
Bui God said unto
be required of thee."
" Thoufool,"-\
this title is
opposed
to the
opinion
"this night," of his own prudence and foresight which he entertained, and that " soul," which years that he promised to himself, to the many
he purposed to nourish and make fat, it is declared shall be inexorably required," and painfully rendered up.:j: There is no need to inquire here, as has been sometimes done, in what way God spoke to the man,
whether by a sudden presentiment of approaching death, by some strong alarm of conscience, by some mortal sickness at this instant falling upon We are not to understand that in any of him, or by what other means.
these
ways God spake
lonian king, while the

* TertuUian
spatia cogitavit.
was not with him as with the Babyword was in whose mouth there fell a voice from
to
him.
It
Provenientibus fructibus ampliationem horreorum, et longee securitatis
quaintance, where,
death of a rich act See a striking Epistle (the lOlst) of Seneca, on the sudden among other things, he says Qua,m stultum est setatem disponere
: !
inchoantium. ne crastino quidem dominamur. O quanta dementia est, spes longas Emam, Eedificabo, credam, exigam, honores geram turn demum lassam et plenam senectutem in oiium referam. See, too, more than one of the Greek Epigrams ex;
pressing the
fiirpa iTpi!it!6Tcpa,
same truth, and this

life,
that with all
his
heaping a
man
is
not able
^lons coipevaai
vi.
surely
is
what
the Lord intends to affirm, Matt.

for while
27,
add
to
that no one can add to his term of

their length of
life, (/(Ai/ci'a,)
many would
and
it
fain
so
who
ever wanted to add to his stature?
is
not merely a
great addition, such as a cubit, which he could not make, but the smallest, not even an inch, which would naturally be the thing expressed, if that were the meaning.
I
Vitringa {Erklitr. d. Parab.,
p.
XXV. 25, and observes that this rich fool
781) makes here an ingenious reference to 1 Sam. " As his is the Nabal of the New Testament
:
name
is,
so
is
he
Nabal
is
his
name, and
folly is
with him."
Compare
ver.
36-38,
then with this ver. 20 of our parable.
THE RICH FOOL.

heaven
31.)
267
(Dan. iv. tellinor him that the kingdom was departed from him. Here we are to suppose nothing of the kind, but more awful still, that while those secure deliberations which have been just described were going on in the thoughts of the man, this sentence was being determined in the counsels of God :* for it is thus that the Lord in heaven derides the counsels of sinners, seeing them in their vanity and folly, and knowing how soon he will bring them to nothing. f Not as yet was there any direct communication between God and the man's soul any mes-
sage or warning concerning the near impending judgment, but even

the very
at
of his
moment when God was pronouncing life should in a hw moments be cut in
the decree that the thread
twain,
he was promising
himself as confidently as ever the long spaces of an uninterrupted security.
There
we may
a force in the words, " shall be required of thee,'^ (with which compare Wisd. xv. 8, " His life which was lent him shall be
is
:
demanded,") a force which Theophylact well brings out

less exactors
" For like
piti-
of tribute, terrible angels shall require thy soul from thee

life resisting.
it
unwilling, and through love of

soul
is
For from
the righteous his
not required, but he commits
to
God and
the Father of spirits,
pleased and rejoicing, nor finds
upon
it
as a light burden.
it,
it hard to lay it down, for the body lies But the sinner who has enfleshed his soul,
and imbodied
and made
:
it
earthy, has prepared to render

it is
its
divulsion
from the body most hard

a disobedient debtor, that
wherefore
is
said to be required of him, as
delivered to pitiless exactors. ":{:
For he
is
not as a ship, which has been long waiting in harbour, and joyfully
the signal
is
when
its
given
lifts its
anchor, and makes sail for the harbour of eterfierce
nity, but like the ship
which by some
which
wind
is
dragged from
moorings, and driven furiously to perish on the rocks.

ling
is
The mere
world-
torn from the world
is
the only sphere of delight
which he
knows, as the fabled mandrake was torn from the earth, shrieking and
with bleeding roots.
" Then whose shall those things be which thou hast
this as constituting part of
provided 7"
Solomon long before had noted
the vanity of wealth, and the eager pursuit after wealth, namely, the un-
God
said to
him
this, in the
words of Grotius,
if
Non
It is
revelando sed decernendo.
t This will come out yet more strongly

the vocative
t
a<^^'iv,
with the best manuscripts

!
we
read not
but the nominative
aippiou,
Fool
so in Lachmann's text.
So on
the other side, the Jewish doctors taught that the angel Gabriel
;
drew
gently out with a kiss, the souls of the righteous from their mouths
to
something of
which kind, the phrase so often used to express osculo Domini obdormivit, must allude.
the peaceful departure of the saints. In
See Lucian's inimitable dialogue, the sixteenth, {Cataplus,)
for
a commentary,
in
its
way, on these words " shall
be required," as well as
on those which next follow.
268
certainty to
heir would
THE RICH FOOL.

whom
make
after death
it,
it
would come, and of the use which the

ii.
of
(Eccles.
18, 19,) "

I
Yea,
hated
all
it
my
labour
which
had taken under the sun, because
should leave
to the
man
that shall be after
or a fool ?"
eth not
me: and who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man Compare Ps. xxxix. 6, " He heapeth up riches, and knowthem."
(Eccles.
ii.
who
is
shall gather
26
Ps. xlix.
6-20; Job
toward
xxvii. 16, 17.)*
" So
he
that,
layeth
up treasure for himself, and
is not rich
God,'^ or, does not enrich himself toward
God
for the
two clauses of
the verse are parallel, and in the second not merely a state or condition,
the being rich, but as in the
first,
an
effort
and endeavour, the making

is
oneself rich, though in a
manner
altogether different,
assumed.
Self
and God are here contemplated as the two poles between which the soul
is
placed, for one or other of which

its
it
must determine, and then make

If for the
first,
that one the end of all
aims and
efforts.
then the
is,
" layeth tip treasure
for himself," and what the end of

his tz'easure, so
this
man we have
in
seen
the
to
man and
far at least as
it is
his treasure,
come
nothing together.
He
has linked himself

it.
to the perishable
his inmost being,
and he must perish with

is
His very enriching of

is
himself outwardly, while that
made
the object of his being,

is,
an
impoverishing of himself inwardly, that
toward God and in those

continual draining off to
which are the true riches
for there
is
worldly objects, of those affections which were given him that they
might find their satisfying object

his heart is also.
in
God
where
his treasure
is,
there
Now
the Scripture ever considers the heart as that

poor.
which constitutes a man truly rich or

God, no large spiritual
affections,
He
that has
no love of
no share in the unsearchable riches of Christ, no sympathies with his brethren, is in fact, " wretched and
miserable, and poor and blind, and naked," and shall one day find out
that he is so,
however now he may say, "

he
am
rich and increased with
goods, and have need of nothing :"
is
poor towards God, he has
nothing with
God
God
he has laid up in store no good foundation against
the time to come.

rich toward
On
the other hand, he only

is
is
truly rich,
who
in
is
who
rich in
God
who
to,
has made the eternal and
the unchangeable the object of his desires and his efforts.
He
God
for
possesses
all
things,
though
in this
world he were a beggar, and

his riches.
him
*
to die will not be to quit,
but to go
So
the
Greek epigrammatist on the painful gatherer of wealth

Utiroj
'oTTota ficXttroa
for others
TroAurpiiroij ivi <riî/?Xoif

jxiXt.
M-OÔijaet, Ircpuv ipcnrofievdiv to
t I cannot give better
what seems
to
me
the
true
view of the passage than

:
in
Cyprian's words addressed to the covetous {De Opere et Eleem.)
Obsederunt
animum
.THE RICH FOOL
269
Our Lord having thus warned his hearers against covetousness, and how often it springs from a distrust in God's providential care, goes on to teach them where they may find that which shall be the best
knowino-
such over anxious thoughts for the future, nameof the love and care of an heavenly Father, (ver. ly, in the assurance
preservative against
all
22-30,) so that the connexion
is
as close as
it is
beautiful,
between
this
There is also, parable and the instructions which immediately follow. perhaps, in the words of ver. 24 a distinct reminiscence of the parable.
PARABLE XX.
THE BARREN
Luke
xiii.
FIG
6-9.
TREE.
an
The
eagerness of
men
to
be the
first
narrators of evil tidings,
eagerness which can only spring from a certain secret pleasure in them,* though that be most often unacknowledged even to themselves,
was perhaps what moved some of those present to tell the Lord of a new These persons understood rightly outrage which Pilate had committed.
that he
was speaking,
is
in the
words which conclude the
last chapter,
of
the severe judgments which

sins
:
men
bring upon themselves through their
but, as
to
words
others.
generally the manner of men, instead of applying these their own consciences, they made application of them only to Of the outrage itself, which however agrees well with the
quarrel between Herod and Pilate,

either
it is
(Luke
xxiii. 12,)
is
its
cause or
its
consequence,
there
no historical notice.
and might have been For
little
fanatical Samaritan insurgents, recorded
probable that the scattering or slaying by Pilate of some by Josephus, which is here adis
duced by some of the early commentators,

it is
the event referred to
and
something too bold a change,

sterilitatis tenebrae, et
as Lightfoot observes, to
make
rebel-
tuum
recedente inde lumine veritatis, carnale pectus alta et pro:
funda avaritae caligo caeeavit

quae te servata
pecuniae tuae caplivus et servus es,
serves pecuniam,
:
patrimonium cumulas, quod te pondere suo graviCis onerat stulia. exulnee meministi quid Deus responderit diviti exuberantium fructuum copiam Quid divitiis tuis solus incubas ? qui in pcenam tuam patrimonii tatione jactanti
non
servat,
tui
pondus exaggeras
S. v.
ut quo locuplelior saculo fueris, pauperior
Deo
fias
See
SuICER'S TheS.
*
ing,
7rXorw.
least,
Two
languages at
to
bear melancholy witness
to the existence of
such a
feel;
having a word
express this joy at calamities
: the German,
Schadenfreude
and the Greek, imâipcKaKia
270
THE BARREN FIG TREE.

Among
the
ling Samaritans of these sacrificing Galilseans.

less atrocities
numbernothing
with which the

at length
Romans exhausted
it
the patience of the

it is
Jewish nation, and

strange that
this,
drove
into
open resistance,
which must have been but a drop of water in the sea, should have remained unrecorded. It is no more stranjje than that the
no place
in profane history.
slaughter of a few infants in a small country town like Bethlehem should

find
racter for which the Galilasans were noted,*
The troublesome insurrectionary chamay have been the motive
or excuse for this outrage, which must have been perpetrated at Jerusa-
lem where alone

in the
sacrifices
in
" whose blood
language
were offered. There is something significant which the slaughter of these Galilseans is narrated,
had mingled with their sacrifices."
It is
Pilate
proba-
ble from our Lord's reply, that the narrators urged this circumstance,
or at least would have had
it
understood, as a peculiar evidence of the

If
anger of God against the sufferers.
men might have been

at the altar of
safe any-
where or
at
any time,
it
would have been
God, and while
in the act of offering sacrifices
unto him.
But here, they probably
meant
to infer, just as Job's friends inferred
some great
guilt on his part
from the greatness of his calamities, there must have been some hidden
enormous
sin,
guilt,
which rendered the very
sacrifices of these
men
to
be
not a propitiation of God, but a provocation,
so that they
them-
selves
became piacular
of,
expiations, their blood mingling with, and itself
becoming part
the sacrifices which they offered.

this
But whether exactly
was what they meant
or not, the
Lord
at
once
laid bare the evil in their hearts,
rebuking the cruel judgments which they

;
certainly had formed concerning those that perished
"Suppose ye
that
these Galilseans were sinners above
all
the Galilaeans, because they suffered

to
such things ?" Hedoes not deny that they were sinners, justly obnoxious
this or
any other severest

and then he leads
visitation
from God, but he does deny that their

all other
calamity marked them out as sinners ahove
of their fellow-coun-
trymen
xiii.
his hearers, as
was ever
his
manner, (see Luke

to fix
23
John
xxi. 22,) to take their eyes off
from others, and

;
them
though
The
Galilaeans are described by Josephus as industrious and brave
but,
not in the least considered heretical like the Samaritans, by the other Jews, they were
yet held in a certain degree of contempt by them, partly because their blood
sidered less pure,
was con-
many heathens being mingled among them, whence

;
their country is
called " Galilee of the Gentiles," (Matt. iv. 15
see 1
Mace.
i.
15, TaXiAaia d\\o<pv>.iov,)
and partly
because their faith was considered by the Jewish doctors as less strictly
vii.
orthodox, (John
52
see
i.
46
Acts
ii.
7,)
they in
many
observances departing
from the Jewish
tradition.
They spoke
a bad dialect, (Matt. xxvi. 73,) characterized
particularly by a confusion of gutturals,
and a broad
.Syriac pronunciation, so
as to
give occasion to the strangest mistakes, and often to be unintelligible to a native of
Jerusalem.
(See Lightfoot's Chorograph. Cent.,
c.
86, 87.
THE BARREN PIG TREE,

upon themselves
lamities
271
all
" Except
we
;
ye repent, ye shall
likewise perish."
Here, in these words,
are exactly taught
how
rightly to use the cais,
which
befall others
what
their significance
as regards our-
selves
that they are loud

we
calls to
an earnest repentance.
For instead
of exalting ourselves above and against the sufferers, as though
we were
like tri-
more righteous than

bulations,
other,
all
they, and on this account
exempt from the

So
are on the contrary to recognize that whatever befalls anit
might justly have befallen ourselves.
will be ever felt
by
who, not altogether ignorant of their own sinfulness, and of the

Moreover, when
holi-
ness of God, apply any right measure to their

against the law of God.
own actual transgressions we have learned to see in

acknowledge that what-
ourselves the bitter root of sin,
we
shall learn to
it
ever deadly
fruit
it
bears in another,
might have borne the same or
worse, 'under like circumstances, in ourselves.

will be no longer possible to
But when
this is felt,
it
triumph over the doom of any sinner.
thoughts of a
life
and on
his
man thus taught to know himself will fall back on his own heart. He will see in the chastisement which
will see in
it
The own
has
overtaken another, the image of the chastisement which might justly
have overtaken himself; he

to himself.
a message of warning addressed
For he
will not
deny, as neither does our Lord here deny,

it
the intimate connexion between sin and suffering, but the race which
at
is
is
the sin of
linked with the suffering of the race
not, of necessity
least, the sin
of the individual with his particular suffering.*
So
* Strauss {Lehen Jesu,
v. 2, pp.
8490) terms the
faith in a
this
connexion between sin

first
and
sufTering, a " vulgar

to clear the
Hebrew
notion," from
which
passage might at
ix. 2,
sight
appear
Lord, but which such other passages as Matt.

;
John
v. 14, lay
again at his door, or that of his historians

in contradiction to
and says that
this
passage and those are
one another, and cannot be reconciled.
He
will not see, I

is this,
know
not whether in feigned or real blindness, that what Christ condemns ing that any man's particular calamity
affirms, all Scripture affirms, that the
is
the affirm-
the consequence of his particular sin.
He
human
tion in
race
is
the consequence of the
sum total of the calamity which oppresses the sum total of its sin nor does he deny the rela;
which a man's actual sins

to trace the
may
stand to his sufferings.
What
he does deny
is
man's power
connexion, and therefore his right in any particular case, to
assert such connexion.
And
this,
instead of being a
''
vulgar
of the most deeply-rooted convictions in the universal

the proverbs of
all
Hebrew notion," human heart, witnessed
is
one
for
by
nations, inextricably entwined in all language

in
their prosperity, but
truth
which
men
may
forget or
to
deny
which
is
in the
hour of calamity they are

hour of their
compelled
acknowledge
when
this confession
it
ever extorted from them, Our sin

;
hath found us out.

afflictions,
Thus was
is this
with Joseph's brethren

sins:
in the
own
xvii.
they remembered their

. .
own
"We
are verily guilty concerning our

;
brother,
therefore
distress
18
Judg.
i.
Acts
xxviii. 4.)
come upon us." (Gen xlii. 21 cf 1 Kin. There are some excellent observations upon
d.
this
subject in
Hengstenberg's Authentic
Fentateuches,
v. 2, p.
577, seq.
272
far

from denying
this
connexion, the more the Christian conscience

it,
is
developed in him, the more freely he will acknowledge
the
more
close
and intimate will

sical evil
it
appear.
which he encounters
he will anew justify God as
At every new instance of moral and phyin a world which has departed from God, the Author of all good, even when he proves
himself negatively such, in the misery of
man
as he
is
a sinful creature
separated from his God, as well as positively in the blessedness of

as he
is
man
more
redeemed and reunited with himself.

blesssed Lord, to set the truth he
Our
would
fain enforce yet
plainly before his hearers, himself brings forward another instance of a

swift destruction overtaking
many
*
persons at once
" Those
eighteen
on
whom
the tower of Siloam

all
were sinners above
men
and slew them, think ye that they Neither in this that dwelt in Jerusalem ?"
fell
case were uncharitable judgments to find place, as though these were

sinners above all men, as though they
others.
owed a larger debt
("
to
God than
to
But while none were

all
to attribute a
preponderance of guilt
those
who
perished, yet here also, in these accidents, in this disharmony
of outward nature,
were
to
recognize a call
to
repentance, partly as
these swift calamities should convince them of the uncertain tenure of

life,
and how soon therefore the day of grace might be closed
for
them
but chiefly as awakening in them a sense of consciousness of sin.
For
are
the discords of outward nature, storms and floods, earthquakes and pestilences,
and so too
all
disasters such as that one here referred
to,
parts of that curse, that subjection of the whole creation to vanity, con-
sequ3nt on the sin of man.
warning language,
" Except
is,
All were to speak to sinners in the same
ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish."
a force in the original word {waavTag), which our English " likewise," from its frequent lax usage as a synonyme for " as well," fails
There
is
to give.
The
threat
that they shall literally in like wise perish, in a

:
manner
similar to that in which these perished
for,
as
it
has often been
observed, the resemblance is more than accidental between these two calamities here adduced, and the ultimate destruction which did overtake the rebellious Jews, those who refused to obey the Lord's bidding,
and
to repent.
As
the tower of Siloam
fell
and crushed eighteen of the
* This tower was, from
its
name, probably
in the
6. 7,
immediate neighbourhood of the

2)
fountain of Siloam, though Josephus {Bell. Jud.,
would seem
to distinguish
region of Siloam from the fountain bearing that name.

are so numerous, both in
the
Though
the notices of Siloam
Scriptures and in the Jewish historian,

its
modern topophrase,
graphers are altogether at issue concerning

t Literally, "
true position.
Think yc they were

12
<2ei/ors
above
all
men?" a remarkable
xii.
selected for
its
peculiar fitness here, and with reference no doubt to chapter

;
58,59.
(Cf. Matt. V.
25
vi.
xviii.
24
Luke
vii.
41.)

dwellers at Jerusalem, exactly so multitudes of
its
273
inhabitants
;
were
crushed beneath the ruins of their temple and their city

the last siege and assault of that city, there were
and during
also,
numbers
who
were pierced through by
the
Roman
darts in the courts of the temple,
in the very act of preparing their sacrifices, so that literally their blood, like that of these Galilaeans,
was mingled with
their sacrifices, one blood
with another.
Those two calamities then are adduced
as slight foretastes of the

If the
doom prepared
doom might
these
still
for the
whole rebellious nation.
warning was
then
taken, if they would even
now bring
:
forth fruit
meet
for repentance, that

to return,
be averted
but
if not, if
they refused
calamities would in the end be headed up by that one great and
final catastrophe, which would leave no room for repentance. In the meanwhile they were to see in the fact that as yet the strokes descended upon them for warning, and not the stroke for excision, a proof of the
long-suffering of God, not willing that
observes,
any should perish
as Olshausen
is
" the discourse of Jesus, severe and full of rebuke,

in
closed
side of
by a parable,
which the merciful Son of man again brings the
grace prominently forward.

fore the righteousness of the
He
appears as the Intercessor for
men
befor
heavenly Father, as he who obtains

runs through
them space
Scripture
for repentance.
This idea of the deferring of the judgment

to turn,
all
of God, so to leave
;
men
3
;)
opportunity
the
Holy
24
before the deluge, a period of an hundred and twenty years
was
fixed
(Gen.
vi.
Abraham prayed
for
Sodom
(Gen.
xviii.
;)
the destruction of Jerusalem did not follow
till
forty years after the asis
cension of the Lord
and the coming again of Christ

iii.
put off through
the patience of God. (2 Pet.
9.)"
This parable then

severity of
is
at
once concerning the long-suffering and the

:
God
it
in his vineyard."
the parable of the
" A certain man had a Jig tree planted The vineyard here must be the world, and not, as in Wicked Husbandmen, the kingdom of God in the begins thus
;
midst of the world the Jewish people were set and appointed that they
should bear
(Deut.
is
much
fruit,
that they should bring
much
glory to God.
at
iv. 6.)
Yet though the parable was directly pointed

;
them,
it
also of universal application

all
for as Israel
according
to the
flesh
was
is
the representative of
and of each,
who
in after times should be elect-
ed out of the world
to the privileges
of a nearer knowledge of God, so
a warning herein contained

vidual soul.*
for the Gentile

is
Indeed there
Church and for every indipersonal application made of the image
* Such application of
daeis
it
Ambrose makes (Exp.
in
dictum, omnibus cavendum arbitror, et nobis
Luc, 1. maxima
7, c.
:
171)
Quod de Ju-
ne fecundum Ecclesiae
274

iii.
which supplies the groundwork of the parable, by the Baptist, (Matt.

10,) and of an
image very nearly the same by Christ himself. (John xv. The possessor of the fig tree " came and sought fruit thereon.'^ 2.) What is here parabolically related was on another occasion typically
done in a kind of sermo realis by the Saviour

off,
" seeing a fig tree afar
having leaves, he came,

xi. 13.)
if
haply he might find anything thereon."

^'^
(Mark
none."
this
But he then,
as the master of the vineyard now,
found
fruit
Long
since the prophets had upbraided their people,

to
and laid
charge against them, that though ordained

no
bring forth
much
to the
glory of God, they had fallen from their high calling, and brought
fruit or bitter fruit.
(Isai. v. 2,
forth either
Jer. xv., and, if
our
version
is to
is
stand, Hos. x. 1.)
There
a wonderful significance in the simple
the whole of Scripture, according to which
men
image running through are compared to trees,
and their work

from without.
It is
to fruit
life,
i.
the
;
fruit
being the organic produce and evi-
dence of the inner
not something arbitrarily attached or fastened on
(Ps.
Jer. xvii. 8
John xv.
2, 4,
Rom.
vii.
4.)
a comparison which helps greatly to set forth the true relation be-
tween
faith and works, which relation is, in fact, just as plainly declared by our Lord, when he says, " A good tree bringeth not forth corrupt
fruit,
neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit,"

St.
as
by
Paul
in
any of
his Epistles.
(Luke vi. 43,) There are three kinds of works
spoken of
in the
New
;)"
Testament, which
tree,
may
all
be illustrated from this

fruit
image
the
first,
good works, when the
being made good, bears
of
same character
then dead works,:}: such as have a fair outward ap-
pearance, but are not the living outgrowth of the renewed

it
man
fruit,
as
were attached and fastened on from without, alms given

in,
that they
may
be gloried
prayers
made
that they
may
be seen, works such as were
locum vacui meritis occupemus
qui quasi melogranata benedicti, fructus ferre
debemus
internos, fructus pudoris, fructus conjunctionis, fructus mutuae caritatis et amoris, sub
uno utero
itatis
Ecclesiae matris inclusi
ne aura noceat, ne grando decutiat, ne
aestus cupid-
exurat, ne humoris imber elidat.

vii.
* BttiGEL on Matt.
mala, indole
s\ik,
16: Fructus
est,
quod homo, tanquam arbor, ex bona, vel

Doctrina undecunque
doctor aliquis ex suo
sua, constitutione
omnes
interiores facullates permeante.scaturit.

;
compilata et linguae allignta non est fructus
sed id
omne quod
corde promit et profert, in sermone et aclione.ceu quiddam ex intimfi

fluens, ut lac
quod mater prapbet ex

its fruits,
se.
See an admirable sermon by Augustine
(Serm. 72) on the tree and

works.
t "Epyo 0io5 (John
niarebi! (1
t
as setting forth the relation between a
man and
ii.
his
vi.
28), Ka\a ipya (Tit.
ii.
7), dyaOa cpya (1
Tim.
10), ipya
Thess.
vcKpa
i.
3).
ix. 14),
'Epya
(Heb.
and sometimes
'ipya v6pov
(Gal.
ii.
16).

most of those of the Pharisees
:
275
and
lastly,
its
wicked works,* when the corkind.
rupt tree bears fruit manifestly of

those good fruits which the tree
is
own
Here
it is,
of course,
:
accused of not bearing
both the
other kinds of fruit the Jewish nation abundantly bore. For " three years" the master of the vineyard complains that he had come seeking fruit, and in vain. Of these " three years " very many
explanations have been offered.
times of the
natural law,
;
of
the written law,
Augustine understands by them the and now, at last, of
grace.
Theophylact
in his
"Christ came thrice, by Moses, by the prophets,

person ;" or,
and thirdly,
own
when
application of the parable is

in old age.
made
to the individual,
in childhood, in
manhood,
Olshau-
sen thinks that they
may
refer to the three
years of the Lord's open
ministry upon earth; but Grotius had already observed against this
view, that
if the
three years are chronological, the one year more,
which
at the intercession of the dresser
of the vineyard
is
granted
to the tree,
ought certainly
to
be
chronological also, whereas not one, but forty

to the
;
years of grace were allowed
" Culil
'^
Jews, before their

Matt.
vii.
final destruction.
down,'' (see Isai. v. 5, 6

it
19
Luke
xix.
41-44,)
why
^ cumbereth
the
ground ?"
St. Basil beautifully
observes the love

is
which breathes even

peculiar
to the
in the threatenings of
God.
" This," he says, "
clemency of God toward men,

;
that he does not bring in

first
punishment silently or secretly
hut by his threatenings

to
proclaims
is
them
to be at
hand, thus inviting sinners
repentance."
proverb, "
There
a
of
blessed sense in which that
word of the Greek
The
feet
the avenging deities are shod with wool," to express the noiselessness of
their approach,
is
not true. Before the

iii.
at the root of the tree, (Matt.

for
10,) laid there, as
hewing down begins, the axe is laid prompt and at hand

;
immediate use, though as yet no blow has been struck

that if possible, this
but laid there

avert the
also,
sign of
what
is
threatened
may
The
rris
actual fulfilment of the
threat.:}:
(2 Chron. xxxiii. 10.)
" cumber-
* "Epyu novripa (1 John

V. 19).
iii.
12), cpya Tov axdrovs (Rotn. xiii. 12),
aapKd; (Gal.
t
the
We
have missed the " also" here,

:
(ii'ari
k a
nV
1
yfjv
Karapyd
;)
which
is
really
key-word of the sentence

barren,
it
Wherefore should the
tree stand,
when, besides being

held
:
itself
also injures the soil in
which
it is
set
The Vulgate has
it
fast
Ut quid etiam terrara occupat ? and in De Wette's German translation Warum macht er auch noch das Land unfruchtbar ? Gregory ihe Great (Horn. 31 in Evang.) shows that it had not escaped him Postquam enim se perdidit, quserendum est cur et
:
alios premat.
And
:
Bengel
Non modo
nil prodest,
sed etiam laticem
avertit,
quem
and
have
e terra sucturae erant vites, et soles interpellat, et spatium occupat.

t
Augustine
Si damnare vellet, taceret.
Nemovolens
7,
Xiiyto, iVa
//^
ferire dicit,
:
Observa
Chrysostom has the same thought (De Fmnit., Horn.

av
'iva ipiyoijjLtv Ttjv -rrtXpav rrii
ad finem)
'ATret\ei rnv rtfiupi-
Ti/itopiai'
tpo/Sti
no
Ko\aori tS> cpyto.
We
276

it
ing "* the ground implies something more than that
occupied the place

tree
:
which might have been

itself the fatness
filled
by another and a fruit-bearing
the
to
barren tree injured the land, spreading injurious shade, and drawing off
and nourishment which should have gone
to the trees that
would have made a return.

jured the ground in which
Thus,
like this fig tree, the
Jewish Church
it
not merely did not itself bring forth fruits of righteousness, but
il
in-
Through them the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles (Rom. ii. 24 ;) they hindered the spread of the knowledge of God among other nations, through the
planted.
;
was
mischievous influences of their pride and hypocrisy
(Matt, xxiii. 13,

is
15;) even as
ple,
it is
true of every individual sinner, that he

;
not merely
unprofitable to God, but has a mischievous influence
by
his evil
examto
by his corrupt maxims, he
is
an hindrance and a stumbling-block
others in the
way
of their attainment of salvation.
The
it
dresser of the vineyard,

be, avert its
who
pleads for the tree, and would, if

lei it
might
doom, saying, " Lord,
alone this year also,"
is
manifestly the Son of

;
God
himself, the Intercessor for
men
(Job xxxiii.
23 Zech, i. 12; Heb. vii. 25 ;) yet not as though the Father and the Son had different minds concerning sinners, as though the counsels of for righteousness and the Father were wrath, and of the Son, mercy love are not qualities in him, who is Righteousness and who is Love
they cannot, therefore, be
set
one against the other, since they are his
parallel,
Heb.
vi. 7, 8.
The
earth which beareth thorns and briers
is
there described
it
as Karapas iyyui, but though thus " nigh unto cursing," the
yet
;
curse has not lighted on
it is
foreannounced, that so
is
it
may
not arrive.
;
* The word
to its selection.
not
altogether adequate
nor
is
it
very easy to see what induced

In the Geneva,
It
first
appears in Tyndale's translation.

its
"Why
a
keepeth
sion.
it
the
ground barren?" takes
place, but
it
reappears in the authorized ver-
Doubtless the verb, to comber, (cognate with the
German kummern) had

it
stronger and more extensive sense in early English than
has retained
in
later use,
but mainly the sense of harassing or annoying.
Like the occupat of the Vulgate,

Karapyn (=dpy(5', or icpyov
is
;
which
is
evidently too weak,
it
fails
to give us the
noiei)
of the original.
the tree
is
Impedit, which appears to have been in the old Italic,
better, for
it
charged not merely with being negatively, but positively

the soil beneath
evil
marred
and mischiefed
et solis radius
and around
it.
Gregory the Great
Stat desuper arbor
infructuosa, et subtus terra sterilis jacet.
Infructuosaj arboris desuper
ad terram descendere nequaquam permittitur.

sua, turn
Corn, a Lapide
inertem et steriiem reddit, turn umbra

vicinis vitibus eripit et prjeripit.
radicibus suis,
umbra densatur, Terram quibus succum terras

:
:
"
Even so we have in Shakspeare The noisome weeds that without profit suck The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers."
and only here besides
i.
The word
dKiipirouj
KarapyeXv
is
a very favourite one with St. Paul, occurring no less than twen;
ty-six times in his Epistles
in the
N. T.
s. v.
We
have apynii and
joined together, 2 Pet.
8.
See Suicer's Thes.,

essential being. Yet, on the other hand,
error, fall into the opposite, letting
277
we must
not, while escaping this

sin,
it
go the reality of God's wrath against
the reality of the sacrifice of Christ, not merely on the side with
it
which
looks towards men, but also on the side with which
looks towards
God
the death of Christ wasreally a propitiation of God, not merely an assurance
of God's love towards sinners.
The way of escape from both
these errors
is
shown
(1 Pet.
to
us in those words
xiii.
" the
Lamb
slain from the foundation of the
world ;" (Rev.

i.
;)
" foreordained before the foundation of the world."

pass
20.)
The sacrifice, though of necessity outwardly brought to
in time, "
now
manifest in these last times for you," yet took place in the
who offered, and of him who accepted it, before all time, or we must not conceive of man as ever not contemplated by God in Christ there was no change in God's mind concerning the sinner,* because he who beholdeth the end from the beginning, had
purpose of him
rather, out of time; so that
:
beheld him from the
first
as reconciled and re-constituted in his Son.
(Rom.
xvi. 25, 26.)
In this view
we may
consider the high priestly in-
tercession of Christ as having found place and been effectual even before he passed
from earth into the heavens,
before he had carried his

for to that intercession all
own
and
blood
into the truly
Holy of
holies
.'\
the long-suffering of
all
God toward
sinners
is to
be referred
I
" The
is
earth
the inhabitants thereof are dissolved
bear up the pillars of it."
(Ps, Ixxv. 3.)
Some
of the Fathers see here allusion also to the interits
cessory work, which the Church, in

ing forward on behalf of
world.
a real
xlii.
:[:
healthy members,
that of the
ever carryfor the
its
sick
members, or
is
Church
No
1
doubt such intercession
always going forward, and has
worth before God, (Gen.

;
xviii.
23-33
;
Jam.
v.
Sam. 14-18
;
xii. 19,
;
23
2 Kin. xix. 24
Jer. xv.
Exod. xxxii. 11; Job 1 ; 1 Tim. ii. 1-4 j

satisfactory,
John
v. 16,)
and such need not here be of necessity

it
excluded
but at the same time,

to
seems simpler and more

others
with Theophylact and others,

cessor,
refer this primarily to that one Interall
on whose intercession that of

that he
must ultimately
rest.
It
is plain, too,
must be meant,
for the pleader
now
is
the
same who
c.
2)
Interpellat misericors misericordem.
Qui enim
se
volebat exhibere misericordem, ipse sibi opposuit intercessonim.
t Cocceius and his followers, as
is
well
known,
between the
Traptun
(Rom.
iii.
25) and the
u,jjc<Tti
a^mpnwi'.
of sins through the forbearance of God, they said

till
much stress on the distinction The first, the /Pretermission was what the Son obtained for men
laid
aipcais,
he had actually come in the
flesh,
and then ensued the
or entire remission,
the last going along with the gift of regeneration, exclusively the prerogative of the
New
t
Covenant.
As

lis
c.
1):
Qui
intercedit colonus est
omnis sanctus, qui
intra Ecclesiam orat pro
qui sunt extra Ecclesiam.
278

But
to
but for this pleading should have executed the sentence.

only, to
him
whom
it
all
judgment
is
committed, could the

it
given, " Cut

for if to
down.'^
Certainly
it
would not
to
command have been have been given to men ;

the angels.
any beside him,
must have been
(Matt.
xiii.
29,30.)
As he
pleads for men, not with the purpose that they
in their sins with impunity, but obtains that their sentence
may continue may for a
while be suspended
to
see if they will
turn and repent, so the vineit
dresser here pleads for the barren tree, not that
may
be suffered to
stand for ever, though
it
continue in barrenness
it
(for on the contrary
he consents
to its
doom,
if
thus continue unfruitful, as a

it
doom
rightit
eous and good

yet do better
shalt cut
it
it
:
;)*
but he asks for

it
one year of grace,

.-\
to see if
will
" If
hear fruit, well

this
and
if not,
then after that thou

it
down."
is,
During
year he " he will dig about
and dung
;" that
he
will
hollow out the earth from around the stem of the

fill
tree,
and afterwards
up the hollow with manure

in the south
as one
:[:
may
often
see done
now
is
to the
orange trees
of Italy.
By
these apin
pliances
signified that multiplication of the
means of grace, which

for ever.
God's dealing with men, we

last
may
so often observe to find place at the
moment,
before
those
means are withdrawn
Thus, be-
fore the flood,
they had Noah, a " preacher of righteousness,"
before
the great catastrophes of the Jews, they had
among them some
of their
the Chaldaeans,
most eminent prophets, as Jeremiah before the taking of Jerusalem by and before its final destruction, they enjoyed the minis-
try of Christ and of his apostles.
To
this last,
no doubt, allusion
is
here
that
more immediately made,
to that larger,
richer supply of grace,
freer outpouring of the Spirit,
which was consequent on the death, and

So Theophylact explains
tree
:
resurrection, and ascension, of the Lord.

digfîng about and
this
manuring the
hitherto unfruitful
"
Though
fruit
;
they were not made better by the law and the prophets, nor yielded
of repentance, yet will
I
water them by
my
doctrines and passion
it
may
be, they will then yield fruits of
obedience."
No
doubt
if the his-
tory of men's lives were writ as large as the history of nations and of
churches, and could we, therefore, read the history of those as plainly
as of these,
we
should oftener perceive that what

first
:
is
true of the last

in
is
also true of the
we
should
mark
critical
moments
c.
men's
lives
With
a play on the words, Augustine {Serm. 110,

;
4)
Dilata est securis, noli
esse secura
and elsewhere,
Distulit securim,
non dedit securitaiem.

d<,
We
xxii.
have the same suspended sense, with

42.
spiritual application of the
or
some word
similar, understood,
Luke
X
For a useful
c. 1
:
words, see Aigustine, Serm. 254 and

Cf.
110,
Sordes cultoris, dolores sunt peccatoris.
Ambrose, De
Poenit., 1. 2, c. 1.

to
279
which
to
all
the future
was
linked, on
visitation
which
it
it
depend,
tance
times of gracious
know, and not
which
was made altogether to was of the deepest impor-
to suffer to
escape unobserved and unimproved.
Such
a time of visitation to the Jewish people
was
the Lord's ministry
42;) then was the digging about and manuring the tree which had been so long barren. But it abode in its
in the midst of it;
xix.
(Luke
barrenness,
ed,
it
its
day of grace came
to
an end
and, as here
is
threaten-
the
was inexorably cut down. We may observe, however, that in parable our Lord does not actually affirm that the tree will certainly
last,
continue unfruitful to the

sible
;
but suggests the other alternative as pos-
"If it
to all
;
bear fruit, tvell."
For thus
the door of repentance
is left
open
they are warned that they are not shut up, except indeed
evil will, in
by their own
unbelief and hardness of heart,* that

inevitable their doom.
it
is
they only themselves
who make
PARABLE
XXI.
THE GREAT SUPPER.

Luke
It
it is
xiv.
15-24.
not worth while to repeat the arguments which

this parable,
seem
to
prove
at
beyond the shadow of a doubt, that

Matt. xxii. 2,
and that recorded
are entirely different,
spoken upon different occasions,
and with (partially) different aims.
On
the present occasion, the Lord
had been invited

Pharisees.
to eat
bread
at the
house of one of the chief of the

at this meal,
(Ver. 1.)
Much happened
which was proba-
* Rosenmiiller (Alte
und Neue Morgenland,
v. 5, p.
187) quotes from an Arabian
writer the following receipt for curing a palm tree of barrenness.

hatchet, and go to the tree with a friend, unto
tree, for
it is
"
whom
thou sayest,
it
I will
Thou must take a cut down this

the stem of
unfruitful.
He
answers.
be,
Do
it
not so, this year
will certainly bear fruit.

;
But the other

ing.
says. It
must needs
must be hewn down
and gives
the tree three blows with the back of the hatchet.
But the other restrains him, cryit
Nay, do
it,
it
not, thou wilt certainly have fruit from

in cutting it
this year, only
have patience
with
cut
it
and be not over-hasty
down
if it still
refuses to bear fruit, then
down.
Then
is
will the tree that
year be certainly
fruitful
and bear abundantly."

it
The same
379
;
slory
to be found in
in the
Ruckert's Brahmanische Erzdhlungen, so that

East
;
would appear widely spread

and in the
also in S.
te Sacy's Chrest. Arabe,

entitled Geoponica.
v. 2, p.
collection of tracts
De Ee Eusticd,
280
bly no

common
meal, but an entertainment prepared with
it is
much
cost
and
expense, and at which many, and

present.
tests
likely, guests of consideration,

for
were
This would seem probable
many
reasons
there were con-
among
the guests for precedency, or at least a silent, but not unto select for
observed or unrebuked, attempt on the part of some

selves the places of honour and dignity.* the Lord's address to his host, in
cellent
feast
them-
(Ver. 7.)
to
Then
again, in
which he points out

it
him a more exthat at that
way
of hospitality, (ver. 12,)
would seem implied
were present many of

adds
his kindred
and richer neighbours
such a
supposition
much
force to the admonishment.
And
yet further,
our Saviour so often borrowed the images of his parables from that which
was actually
hearers
at the
moment
present before his eyes and the eyes of his
that his speaking of a certain

to indicate
man having made
a great supper,
sitting
would seem
tainment.
that this also at
which he was now
was
no ordinary, but rather some costly and numerously attended, enter-
The circumstances
these
:
out of which the parable immediately
grew were
one that sat
at the table
with him, after hearing some of the gra-
cious words that proceeded out of his mouth, could not help exclaiming,
certainly not in the spirit of mockery, rather in approval and admiration, "
Blessed
is
how,
it
may
be asked,
he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God !" But came the Lord's last words, " Thou shalt be
of the just," to
elicit
recompensed
vation
?
at the resurrection
exactly this obser-
what natural connexion was there between the two, for such a connexion is evidently marked in the narrative ? When we keep in
the notions then current
mind
among
the
Jews concerning the resurrecin
tion of the just, or,
which was the same thing, the open setting up of the

that
it
kingdom of God, festival,! of which

it is
to
would be ushered
by a great and glorious
all
at
once easy
members of that kingdom, should be partakers, perceive how this man's thoughts, a man it might be
the
with certain favorable dispositions towards the truth, but of a carnal
mind
like the
most of his countrymen, should have passed on from the

that I'csurrection, or rather, should have interpreted
resurrection of the just, of which Jesus spake, to the great festival which
was
to
accompany
the Lord's words,
when he spake of the recompense

as
is
that
would then be
His
given
to the merciful,
meaning
participation in that festival.
exclamation, " Blessed
he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God !"

adduced by Theophrastus {Char. 21) as an
v. 1, p.
* Tliis snatching at the
first
places
is
example of
the fUKpoiiiiXiTinia.
See also Becker's Charikles,
427.
t See Eisenmenger's Entdeckt. Judentlium,v. 2, p. 872, seq.

against a carnal interpretation, exclaims concerning this supper
Augustine
:
warning
Noli parare fauces,
Bed cor.
THE GREAT SUPPER.

might be unfolded thus
pense
;
281
" Blessed
in
is
he that shall share in the recom-
whereof thou speakest,

just."
the reward
which
first
shall
be
given
at the resurrection of the
His words are an earthly way of sayresurrection !"

It
ing, " Blessed

is
and holy
is
he that hath part in the
warning conveyed in the parable, which we are told was particularly, though we cannot suppose exclusively, addressed to
likely from the
him, that he spoke these words with
very easy and comfortable assur-
ance that he should make one of those that should thus eat bread in the kingdom of God. He, as a Jew, as a member of the elect nation, had been invited to that great feast of God that was all which he paused to
;
consider
and not whether he had truly accepted the

certainly he had not at
call, or,
on the
contrary, had suffered carnal desires and lusts to keep him

rightly embracing
it
;
away from
to
all
considered whether in
the refusal to enter into that higher spiritual
life
of the Gospel,
which
for the
Christ
was now
all
inviting him, there
was
not involved his
own
ultimate
rejection from the heavenly festival.*
For
his
warning, and
said, "
warning of
"
like-minded with him, the parable was spoken.
certain
man made
a great supper. ^^
at
;
Many have
it
a supper "
evening of
because as a supper takes place

time, the last hour, (1 John
invited
ii.
evening, so
1
was
in the
18
Cor. x. 11.) that Christ came, and
men
to the fulness
of Gospel blessings.
But
this is pressing the

:
word of
a great
ed
the original f too far,

feast,
which
is
is
of very wide and fluctuating use
and nothing more,
signified.
Men's
relish
is
so
little,
their desire so faint for the things heavenly, therefore are they presentto
them under such

to
inviting images as this, that if possible they
be stirred up
a more
earnest longing after them.:}:

Quasi in longinqua
'^
may And hade^

Panis
c. 5)
iste suspirabal, et ipse
ante ilium discumbebat.
Atrn-i'oi',
which, as
is
well
known,
originally,
at least in (he
lime of Homer,
indicates the time
that ScTttvou
meant
the morning, in opposition to the evening, meal,
and as
little
when
its
the
meal was made as does the Latin ccena.

the
Or even granting
in
the later
Greek of
New
Testament had come
to signify the
evening meal, yet
still
it
being the chief and most important meal in the day, was naturally what caused
its
here to be selected, and not the accidental circumstance of
being celebrated towards
evening.
t
A sermon
:
by Gregory the Great {Horn. 36 in Evang.) on
this parable
begins
beautifully thus
liciae
Hoc
distare inter delicias corporis et cordis solet,

;
quod corporales de-
cum non habentur, grave in se desiderium accenduni cum vero habitae eduntur comedentem protinus in fasiidium vertunt. At contr&, spiritales delicias, cum non
habentur, in fastidio sunt
:
cum
;
vero habentur, in desiderio
tantoque k comedente
In
illis
amplius esuriuntur, quanto et ab esnriente amplius comeduntur.

placet, experientia displicet
(j
appetitus
placet.
in istis appetitus vilis est, et experientia

is
magis
KoXer^, like the Latin vocare,

;
the technical
It is
word
the
for the inviting to a festival.
(Matt. Mil. 3
John
ii.
Cor. x. 27.)
also
word which
St.
Paul uses
19
282
many^'
us
to
THE GREAT SUPPER.
these were
the Jews,
and the
latter parts of the parable oblige
understand by those bidden, not so
much
the entire nation, as those
who
mio-ht be taken for the peculiar representatives of the theocracy,
the priests and the elders, the scribes and the Pharisees, in opposition to
the publicans and sinners, and
all
the despised portions of the people.
Those other
as claiming to be zealous for the law, to be following after
righteousness,
seemed as
it
were
to
be pointed out as the
first
who
all
should embrace the invitation of Christ.
The maker
of the feast " sent
his servant at supper -time, to say to them that
were hidden, Come, for

in
things are
to
now ready." Some
will
have that the guests,
needing thus
be reminded that the hour of supper had arrived, already began to

slightly they esteemed the invitation
;
show how
as
it
but this
is
a mistake,
;
has been already observed that such was the usual custom
and
their contempt of the honour done them, and their neglect of their word given, for we must suppose they had accepted the invitation before,
is first testified
by their excuses
for not
appearing
at the festival.
There
was, beyond doubt, in the world's history a time, when more than any other it might be said " all things are noio ready," a fulness of time,*
which when
it
was
arrived,
and not
till
then, the
kingdom of heaven
is
was
set up,
and men
it.
invited, the
to enter into
The
servant
Jew who is
first,
and afterwards the Gentile,

not, as
sent to bid the guests
Theophylact assumes, our blessed Saviour himself, who " took the form of a servant," and might therefore be aptly represented under this name.
Nor yet can we include under

old covenant, for
it
is
not
till
this single servant, the prophets of the " all things are now ready " that this ser-
vant
is
sent forth.
He
represents then not the heralds
who went
before
the king, but those

apostles, all
who accompanied him,
preachers, evangelists, and
who, reminding the Jews of the prophecies that went before
to express the
union of an outward word bidding, and an inward Spirit drawing,

to bring
whereby God seeks

is tXKieiv (vi.
;
men
into his
kingdom.
The answering word
in St.
John
how
the
44 xii. 32). They have both their peculiar fitness, in that both express power brought to bear on man's will is a moral power, and man a moral
if
being, capable, though called, of not coming,

tion that
he chooses,
of
resisting the attrac-
would draw him,

the Spirit,
if is
he will.
This attraction or bidding, outward by the
Word, inward by
29,) K\r)aii
the KXtjim ayia, (2

1,)
1/
Tim.
i.
9,) KXijaij
tov Qaov,
(Rom.
xi.
tTTovpai/iui,
(Heb.
iii.
ai/w xXncrts, (Phil.
iii.
14,)
which
we have
last is
it,
not the
calling to an height, but the calling

calling," but " the calling
from an height
not, as
" the high
from on
high."
;
* Theophylact has here a remarkable comparison he has remarked the height to which the wickedness of the world had reached at the time of the Saviour's coming, and goes on "Q,!nrep yap vdaniâ v-rrov\ov kiX KOKiriOei Ibjaiv, ol iarpoX jrujra rdv novtjpdv
;
vvudv
iaurqj
fKpijâi,
ttiri
tifl'
otirtof
ra; (fiapiiaKeiaf cirdyovatv, oSrwj Koi [Tho d/iapnuv edei nivra ra oiKcXa
cntdciâaOat, ttra tov jieyav iarpov intOuvai rd (pdpjiaKOV.
THE GREAT SUPPER.
283
concerning the coming kingdom of God and their share in that kingdom,* bade them now enter on the enjoyment of those good things, which
were no longer good things

"
in the distance, but
now
any
actually present.
And
to
they all toilh one consent,"-\ (or, out of one
mind or
spirit,)
" began
make
excuse."1(.
Whether
there
is
essential difference
between the excuse which the first guest offers, and that offered by the second, whether by these are represented hindrances different in their
nature and character which keep back different
both would alike teach us the
men from
Christ, or that
same general
lesson, that the love of the
things,
world takes away from men a desire after and a relish for heavenly I should imagine there was a difit is not easy to determine.
ference, as
I
have already incidentally suggested,

St.
in
speaking of the
said, "
it,^'
cognate parable in
Matthew.
Perhaps ihe
first
who
/ have
repre-
bought a piece of ground, and

sents these
I must needs go and
see
who
are elate of heart through acquired possessions.
He
is
going to see his ground, not exactly in the spirit of

ed
tlie
Ahab when he
for there
is
visit-
vineyard which he had taken by violence,
no guilt
of the
sort,
and
it
makes much
for the earnestness

is
of the warning conto
veyed
yet
in
the parable,
that tliere
no such attributed
any of the
guests, that none are kept

all
away by any occupation
in itself sinful
and
become
sinful,
because they are allowed
to interfere
with higher
objects, because the first place, instead of a place

is
merely subordinate,
given to them.
it,
glory in
as
Is
and
of
said,
"
But he is going to see his possession that he may Nebuchadnezzar gloried when he walked in his palace not this great Babylon that I have built ... by the might
for
my
power, and
the honour of
my
majesty ?" (Dan.
iv.
30.)
While in him then it is "the lust of the eye and the pride of life" which are indicated as the things keeping him from Christ, with the
second guest
his soul
;
it
is
rather the care and anxiety of business which
fill
he has made an important purchase, and cannot put off for a single day the trial of how it is likely to turnout;* " I have bought
*
Augustine
Vvioixrisy
Qui sunt
invitati, nisi per praeniissos vocati
prophetas?
;
KopSia;, or
Some
similar word, must be supplied

all
and such, as marking
the oneness of spirit out of which
the refusals proceeded, would, I think, be better
than
(jioivfii,
which some propose.

used for recusare and excusare
;
X JlapaiTcTaOai is
for the first.
Acts xxv. 11
for
the second at ver. 19 of this parable, where ^x'^ f^
Traprirriucvov is
Tilf
rather a Latin phrase
(habeas
me
excusatum) than a Greek one.
'Ettuivciv
vX^jao/
would be the more

ergo super-
classic phrase for declining
an
invitation.
:
So Augustine
(Ser7n. 112, c. 2)
In villa empt^, dominatio notatur
bia castigatur,
vitium
malum, vitium primuni.

is less
His mystical explanation of

is
the things which kept a\i'ay the second guest

beautiful
:
satisfactory, but this
as true as
Amor
rerum terrenarum, viscum
est
spiritalium
pennarum.
Ecce con-
284
jive * yoke
THE GREAT SUPPER.

of oxen, and I go
to
prove them."
He
is
one
who
is
getting
what
the other has already got.
If in these
two
it
is
the pride and the business, in the last
it
is
the
pleasure, of the world that keeps
him from
Christ.
*'
See you not that
I have a feast of my own ? why trouble me then with yours ? I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot coffie."f The other two, even while they plead their excuses, are themselves conscious that they are
hardly valid, so that they add out of a sense of this their insufficiency, I pray thee have me excused." But this one accounts that he has a rea''
son perfectly good,

therefore, to
why
he should not attend, and troubles not himself,
make
a courteous denial, but bluntly refuses.:}:

scale of
As
there
was an ascending
contumacy
here.
in the bearing of the guests in the
other parable, (Matt, xxii.) some

killing the messengers, so
is
it
making
It
light of the
is
message, others
true that in none does the
evil grow to such an enormous height as there, yet still is there this same ascending scale. The first would be very glad to come, if only it were possible, if there were not a constraining necessity keeping him away. It is a needs be, so at least he describes it, so he would have it
no doubt represented
in another direction
to the
maker of
the feast.
The second
upon
alleges no
such constraining necessity, but is simply going

;
sufficient reason
yet he too at the same time prays to be excused.
The
third
has plans of his own, and says outright " I cannot come."
to the
According
sufficient
Levitical law, this reason of his would have been a
but
it is
why none why

one
he should not have gone

he should not come
to the battle,
(Deut. xxiv. 5,)
to the feast.
In what remarkable connexion do the words, put into the mouth of

the guests, stand with the declaration of the Saviour which presently after
cupisti, haesisti.
Quia
tibi
dabit pennas, ut columbse,
quando volabis ubi

Ci.
verfe requies-
cas, quando hie ubi malfe haesisti, perverse requiescere voluisti?

cxxxviii. 10.
Enarr. in Ps.
* The number need not perplex

ing with twelve yoke of oxen. nearly useless, the
trial
us, as Elijah (1
Kin. xix. 19) found Elisha plough-
As
a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke would be
of the oxen
was very
needful,
and was probably
to find place
before the purchase
was
finally concluded.
On
the
1.
same grounds Crcesus would excuse

36)
:
his son from the great hunting party

ol
(Herod.
X
1, C.
l!it6yaji6i re
yap tan, Kai Tavra

et
vvv fii\ci.
Bengel: Hie excusator, quo speeiosiorem
honestiorem videtur habere causam,
e6 est ceteris importunior.
tates
;
Gerhard gives well the three hindrances in three words, Dignitates, opes, volupand in the old monkish rhymes there is evidently an interpretation of them
:
intended, something similar to that given above
Uxor,
villa,
boves, cocnam clausere vocatis
Mundus,
cura, caro cceium clausere renatis.
THE GREAT SUPPER.

follows,
*'
285
father,
If
any man come
to
me, and hate not his

sisters,
and mother,
and wife, and children, and brethren, and

also,
yea, and his
own
life
he cannot be
is
my
disciple;"* and
how
apt a
commentary on
I
the
parable
supplied by the words of St. Paul, " This

;
say, brethren, the
time
is
short
it
remaineth that both they that have wives be as though
they had none, and they that weep as though they wept not, and they
that rejoice as though they rejoiced not,
and they that buy as though they

it,"
possessed not, and they that use this world as not abusing
vii.
(1 Cor.
it
29-31,) since
it
was
not the having

to
was
not lawful for
men
have
but
for
they had nothing which
the
unduly loving these things,
which proved
feast.
their hindrance,
and ultimately excluded them from the

success which he
as hitherto
The
has met
it is
servant returns and declares to his lord the

crZZhave excused themselves from
ill
how
coming
even
probable that in no single instance had any one of the spiritual
chiefs of the Jewish nation attached himself openly, and without reserve,
to Christ, so that they could say, "
Have any of the

48.)
rulers or of the
Phar
isees believed on
him ?" (John

to his
vii.
^'Then-\ the master of the housi.
and lanes and the maimed, and the halt, and In these words there would seem a distinct reminiscence of the blind." the precept which Christ just before had given to him at whose table he was sitting " Call thou the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind." (Ver. 13.) He would encourage him to this by showing him that it is
being angry, said
the city,
servant,
Go
out quickly into the streets
of
and bring
in hither the poor,
even thus with the great Giver of the heavenly

ritually sick, the spiritually
in their
feast.
He
calls the spi-
needy
while the rich in their
own
virtues,
own
merits, at once exclude themselves

to sit
and are excluded by
him, he calls these poor

not the law, and
outcasts
down
at his table.
The
people
who knew
into the
the despised and of publicans and they should enter kingdom of God, before the the wise, the proud, before those who they saw, before those who thanked God they were not other men, before those who counted they had need of nothing.
whom
the
Pharisees accounted cursed

sinners,
the nation, the
great,
said
as
that
Hitherto the parable has been historic,

phetic, for
it
now
it
passes on to be pro-
declares
how God had
a larger purpose of grace than could
be satisfied by the coming in of a part and remnant of the Jewish people,
they,

Of
that he
had prepared a
feast, at
which more
shall sit
down than
for
that he has founded a
Church,
in
which there would be room
all
the excuses
made by
illud
the invited guests, Bengel well says
His omnibus
mederi poterat sanctum

t
odium, ver. 26.
Ambrose
Post divitum resupina fastidia.
286
Gentile as well as Jew,
THE GREAT SUPPER.
that those, too, should be " fellow-citizens with
the saints, and of the household of
God."
It is
not that this
is
explicitly
declared in the parable, for the time was not yet for unfolding plainly the
great mystery of the calling of the Gentiles
in,
;
but
it
lay wrapt up theretime.
and, like so
much
else in Scripture, biding
its
The
servant
returning from the accomplishing of his second mission had said, "Lord,
it
is
done as thou hast commanded, and yet there
is
room,
whereupon,
more
since grace will endure a
commission, "
come
in, that
new Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to my house may he jitled." If those in the streets and the
vacuum
as
little
as nature,* he receives a
lanes of the city are the

ignorant, the
more abject of the Jews,
the meaner, the
more
sinful,
then those without the city
here be the symbol of the theocracy
those
which
city will
in the
country round, those
wandering
in the
the hedges, will

Gentiles, ihe
highways and camping, as gypsies now-a-days, under be the yet more despised, and yet more morally abject
to
pagans in all senses of the word. Concerning these the master says, " Compel them
come in."
It
is
how any argument for a compulsion, save indeed should ever have been here drawn from these words. In the
strange
earnest persuasion,
is
a moral one,
first
place, in
the letter of the parable to suppose any other compulsion, save that of
absurd
for
how can we imagine
this single ser-
vant
for
he
is
but one throughout
driving before him, and

men
unto
that
from
ga-
the country into the city, a flock of unwilling guests, and these,
too,
thered from those rude and lawless
whom
he
is
now
sent.
The
on
words imply, not that the giver of the

their part,
feast
assumed there would
be,
any reluctance
to
accept the invitation which should need to

it,
be overcome, any indifference toward
but exactly the contrary.
It
was rather that these houseless dwellers in the highways, and by the hedges, would hold themselves so unworthy of the invitation as scarcely without to believe it was intended for them, scarcely to be induced
earnest persuasion, without the application of something almost like

force
to enter the rich
man's dwelling, and share
in
his magnificent
entertainment.
And when we
pass on to the spiritual thing signified,
since faith cannot be compelled, what can this compelling

in
men
to
come
mean,f save that strong, earnest exhortation, which the ambassadors

* Bengel:
t
Nee
natura nee gratia patitur vaeuum.

it
Even Maldonatus explains

est
thus
Sinners, he says, are to

;
be adeo rogandos,
excellently
:
adeo invitandos, ut quodainmod6 compelli videantur
and Bengel says
Non
omnimoda
eoaetio.... Aliter
compulit Saulus pro Judaisnio insaniens, aliter

this
Paulus servus Jesu Christi.
See on the other hand
phrase adduced and used by
Augustine, as justifying a certain degree of constraint for the bringing
men
into the
c. 7,
outward unity of the Church, Ep. 50, De moder. coerc. Haret., and Serm. 112,
THE GREAT SUPPER.

of Christ will address to men,
287
when they
are themselves deeply con-
vinced of the importance of the message which they bear, and the mighty
issues
rejection of that
which there are for every man, linked with his acceptance or message of the Gospel ? If they " compel," it will be as
did the angels, who,
when Lot
set
lingered, laid
hold upon his hand and
brought him
xix. 16
to
;)
forth,
and
him without
the city of destruction;
(Gen.
or the ambassadors of Christ will, in another way, compel
men
has a
come
in, for
they will speak as delivering the words of him
who
right to be heard
by
his creatures,
who
not merely entreats, but
com-
Anselm observes, that God may be also said to compel men to come in, when he drives them by strong calamities to seek and find refuge with him and in his Church ;* or as Luther explains it, they are compelled to come in when the law is broadly preached, terrifying their consciences, and
mands,
all
men, everywhere,
to repent
and believe the Gospel.
driving them to Christ, as their only refuge and hope.
The
of
parable closes with the

?/OM,f that
householder's indignant declaration,

7nenj^ that icere
to
" For I say unto
none of those
hidden shall taste
my
supper."
Final exclusion from the feast,
which,
when they
saw
others partaking, they might wish to regain admission on the plea of
their former invitation,
them
he declares
i.
this
is
the penally with
they have forfeited their share in
which he threatens it, and for ever

profit
that no after eai"nestness in
claiming admission shall
them now.
(Prov.
28
Matt. xxv. 11, 12.)

to
It is
worth while
compare
this
parable and that of the Marriage of
the King's Son, for the purpose of observing with
how
fine a skill all the
minor circumstances are arranged

keeping.
possess,
in each, to be in perfectly consistent
The master
power
to
of the house here does not assume, as he does not

;
avenge the insult

itself,
even as the offence committed

in the
is
both
much
lighter in
and lighter
person against
whom
it is
where he says, Foris inveniatur

Unit. Ecclcs.,
c.
necessitas, nascitur intus voluntas
and conipare De
20, and Bernard,
De
Grat. et Lib. Arb.,
c. 11.
* So, too, Gregory the Great {Horn. 36 in

sitatibus fracti
Evang
Qui ergo hujus raundi adver-
ad Dei amorem redeunt, compelluntur ut intrent.
t
Is
is
it
The
in
plural vjun is perplexing, only
one servant having been named throughout.
that that one is considered as the representative of
many
or that this declaration

it,
made
the presence of the
whole household
or, as
1
Bengel explains
of such
guests as were already by the
first
vocation assembled
Flurale pertinet ad introductos
pauperes.
It
cannot be that Christ
round him,
for the
is now speaking in his own person to the Pharisees words must plainly be regarded not as his words, but as the con-
clusion of the parable, and spoken by the householder.

X
It is
worth while observing that

26-29.
it
is
avipwv not
dv6pJ:>iToyv
here,
which of
itself
brings this verse into interesting relation, as indeed the whole parable suggests the
parallel,
with
Cor.
i.
288
THE LOST SHEEP.

is
committed, than the offence which

lel
so severely punished in the paral-
narration.
There
the principal person, being a king, has armies at
his
command,
as he has also whole bands of servants, and not
merely a
single one, to send forth with his
commands.
The
refusal to accept his
invitation, was, in fact, according to
Eastern notions of submission, no-
thing less than rebellion, and being accompanied with outrages done to
his servants, called out that terrible retribution.
Here, as the offence

is,
is
in every
way
lighter, so also is the penalty,
that
in the
outward
cir-
cumstance which supplies the groundwork of the parable, since it is merely exclusion from a festival ; though we should remember it is not
lighter,
when taken
in its spiritual signification;
for
it
is
nothing less
than exclusion from the kingdom of God, and from

the
all
the blessings of
communion of
Christ,
and that exclusion implies " everlasting de-
struction from the presence of the
Lord and the glory of
his
power."
PARABLE
XXII.
THE LOST SHEEP.

Matthew
xviii.
12-14
Luke
xv. 3-7.
When
St.
Luke
says, "
Then drew near

in a certain
is
to the
Lord
all the
all
publicans
at
and sinners
purpose
for to
hear him," this does not imply that
who were
some particular moment

;
neighbourhood drew near with
this
but the Evangelist
rather giving the prevailing feature in
the whole of Christ's ministry, or at least in one epoch of it
that
it
was
such a ministry as
to
draw
all the
outcasts of the nation, the rejected of
the Scribes and Pharisees, round

in his person, in his to
him that there was a secret attraction Word, which drew all of them habitually to him for
" publicans and sinners " the
first
hear him.*
Of these
were men
in-
famous among their countrymen by

*
their very occupation"}"
the second,
Grotius
We
:
find this indicated
in the
:
words, naav iyyiCovm, which here find place, inin
stead of the simpler imperfect

rightly
They were
the habit of
drawing nigh.
Actum continuum et quotidianum genus hoc loquendi significat. And he compares Luke iv. .31 to which he might hnve added Mark ii. 18, and other examples+ TtAtji'ut ((iiro Tov TcXoi wvctaOai) Were of two kinds. The publicani, so called while they were gatherers of the publicum, or state revenue these were commonly Roman knights, who farmed the taxes in companies, and this occupation was not in disesleem, but the contrary. Besides these were the portitores, or exactores, who are
;
;
THE LOST SHEEP.

such as
sins,
till
289
awakened by him
seem
;
to
repentance and a sense of their past
had been notorious transgressors of God's holy law.

to fear,
He
did not re-
pel them, nor
as the Pharisees would have done, pollution
from their touch

lost,
but being
come
to
seek and to save that which was
received them graciously, instructed them further in his doctrine,
and lived in familiar intercourse with them.

Pharisees
At
this
the Scribes and did to
murmured and
took offence*
seeming
as
it
them conavoid the
duct unbecoming a teacher of righteousness.
They
could more easily
have understood a John Baptist, flying

whole manner of
to the wilderness, so to
contamination of sinners, separating himself from them outwardly in the

his life,
as well as inwardly in his spirit.
And
this
outward separation from sinners, which was the Old Testament form of
righteousness, might have been needful for those
their purity in those times of the
in his
who would
preserve
he, first
law and
till
the
Lord came,
till
own
person, and then through his Church, brought a far mightier

to
power of good
bear upon the evil of the world, than ever had been
here meant by rc^Covai,

did the lower
men
of an inferior sort, freedmen, provincials, and the like,
who
work
left
of the collection, and probably greatly abused the

in their hands.
power which of
necessity
was
They were commonly
stationed at frontiers, at
;
gates of cities, on rivers, at havens, (vendentium ipsius coeli et terrse et maris transitus
Tertullian,) for the purpose of collecting customs on the wares
which were brought
into the country.
They were
sufficiently hateful
among
the
Greeks on account of
are given of the
their rudeness, their frauds, their vexations
and oppressions; as they are here classed

lists
with
ajjaprcoXoi,
SO by them wiihîoi^ôi and irnpvofioaKni, and whole
opprobrious epithets with which they were assailed.
Cicero {In Vatin. 5) gives a lively picture of their doings, telling Vatinius he must have thought himself one of
these publicans, ciim
omnium domos,
morarere.
apothecas, naves, furacissime scrutarere, homiirretires,
nesque negotia gerentes judiciis iniquissimis

terreres, conscendentes
mercatores e navi egredientes

ii.
Chrysostom {De Paenit., Horn.

its
4) would seem
it
to say that
the business itself from
very nature, apart from the frauds to which

aXXo iari
reXtivrj;
ft
too often led,
was unrighteous: OiSiv

n\eoveîa.
TTtira^firiaiatTjiivri
pia, li/vonog
to
aftapria, tiirpoaoiiroi
But the Jewish publicans were further hateful

traitors to the cause of the nation
their
for
countrymen, being accounted
and of God, who
the sake of filthy lucre had sided with the
Romans,
the
enemies and oppressors of the

tribute, the
to a
theocracy, and
now
collected for
an heathen treasury that
payment of
foreign yoke.
;
which was the evident sign of the subjection of the people of God
Of
the abhorrence in
which they were held there

their
is
abundant testimony
no alms
might be received from
money-chest, nay
it
was not even

;
lawful to change
money
the
9,)
there their evidence was not received in courts of justice they were put on same level with heathens, (to keep which in mind, adds an emphasis to Luke xix. and no doubt, as renegades and traitors, were far more abhorred even than the
;
heathen themselves.

v. 1, p.
Rom.
Antt.,
s. v.
Publicani, p. 806,
and Deyling's Obss. Sac,

cordisB reprehendebant.
206.)
:
* Gregory the Great {Horn. 34 in Evang.)
Arenti corde ipsum Fontem miseri-
290
brought before.
It
THE LOST SHEEP.

had hitherto been prudent
for those
who
felt
them-
selves predisposed to the infection to flee from the
infected, but he
was
the phj'sician
who
;
rather
came
boldly to seek out the infected, that he

his servants with
might heal them
and furnishing
divine antidotes
against the world's sickness, sent them also boldly to encounter and over-
come
it
it.
This was what the Pharisees and scribes could not understand
to
seemed
them impossible
that
any one should walk pure and unspot-
ted amid the pollutions of the world, seeking and not shunning sinners.
They had
neither love to hope the recovery of such, nor medicines to
effect that recovery.
As another expression of their discontent (Luke v. 30) had called out those blessed words, " Those that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick
;
came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to
repentance ;" so their later murmurings were the occasion of the three
parables which here follow one another, in the which he seeks to shame
the
murmurers out of their murmurs, showing them how little sympathy murmurs found in that higher heavenly world from whence he came. He holds up to them God and the angels of God rejoicing at the
those
this,
conversion of a sinner, and silently contrasts
the liberal joy and
exultation of heaven, with the narrow discontent and envious repinings

that found place in their hearts.
The
holy inhabitants of heaven did
not count scorn of the repentant sinner, but
welcomed him
into their
fellowship with gladness.
Would
to
they dare, in the pride of their legal
righteousness, and of their exemption from
some gross offences whereof
he had been guilty, refuse
receive him, keeping

defile
is
him
at a distance, as
though his very touch would
them
Nor
is it
merely that there

if
joy in heaven over the penitent sinner,
but the Lord warns them,
they indulge in this pride,
themselves up in this narrow form of legal righteousness,

be more joy in heaven over one of these penitents
they shut
if
there will
whom
they so
much
despised, than over ninety-nine of such as themselves.
He
does not
deny the good

zeal for God,
that
might be
in
them
many
But
of them, no doubt, had a
were following
after righteousness
if
such as they knew
it,
a righteousness according to the law.
now
that an higher rightfaith,
eousness was brought into the world,

life
of the Gospel,
life,
the new a righteousness by they obstinately refused become partakers of

to
this
new
preferring to serve in the oldness of the letter instead of the

Spirit,
in
newness of the
though having,
then such as would receive this
life
from him,
times past, departed infinitely wider from
God than
to
they had ever done, ety would now be brought infinitely nearer
as the one sheep
him,
was brought home
to ike
house, while the ninety and
nine abode in the wilderness,
as
for
the prodigal a fatted calf
was
THE LOST SHEEP.

slain,
291
while the elder brother received not so
much
as a kid.
Nay,
in
the last parable they are bidden to beware lest the spirit they are
now
indulging
in, if
allowed further, do not shut them out altogether, or ra-
ther, lest they do not
through
it
exclude themselves altogether, from that
new kingdom
which
ihe
of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,

earth,
Lord was establishing upon

three parables, the two
to
and
into
which they, as
Sheep and the
well as the publicans and sinners, were invited freely to enter.
Of the
first,
those of the Lost
Lost Piece of Money, set forth
us mainly the seeking love of

to
God
while the third, that of the Prodigal Son, describes
us rather the rise
and growth responsive

It is, in fact,
to that love
of repentance in the heart of man.
only the same truth presented successively under different

first,
aspects, God's seeking love being set forth
and
this not
without
reason, since
we
thus are taught that
all
first
motions towards good are
from him, that grace must prevent as well as follow us.

the
But yet
is it
same
truth in all
for
it is
the confluence of this drawing and seek-
ing love from without, and of the faith awakened by the same power
from within,
the confluence of these

faith,
two streams, the objective grace

springs.
and the subjective

bles in this chapter
out of which repentance

for
;
The
para-
would have seemed incomplete without one another,

Separately they
the two
first
but together form a perfect and harmonious whole.
would have seemed incomplete,
speak nothing of a
changed heart and mind toward God

last
nor, indeed,
would the images of

this
;
a sheep and piece of money have conveniently allowed

the antecedent working of the Spirit of
while the
speaks only of this change, and nothing of that which must have
it,
caused
God
in
the heart, the
going forth of his power and love, which must have found the wanderer,
before he could ever have found himself, or found his God.
We may
thus contemplate these parables under the aspect of a trilogy, which yet
again
is
to
be divided into two unequal portions of two and one

distinctly
St.
Luke himself
which
marking the break and the new beginning

two
first.
finds place after the
But there are also many other inner harmonies and relations between them which are interesting to observe and trace. Thus there is
a seeming anti-climax in the numbers
named
in the
successive parables,
in ten,
which
is in
reality a climax,
one
in
an hundred*
one
one
in
two
the feeling of the valu of the part lost would naturallj' increase
* This was a familiar way of numbering and dividing among the Jews, of which examples are given by Lightfoot here. There is also a striking saying attributed to Mahomet, in which the same appears, The Lord God has divided mercy and pity
into an
hundred parts
of these, he has retained ninety and nine for himself, and sent
d. Orients, v. 1, p. 308.)
one upon earth.
(Von Hammer's Fundgruben
292
with the proportion which
THE LOST SHEEP.

it
bore to the whole.
And
other
human
feel-
ings and interests are implied in the successive narratives, which would
have helped
to
enhance
lost.
in
each successive case the anxiety
for the re-
covery of what was
The
possessor of an hundred sheep must have

likely to feel the loss of a
been in some
sort a rich
man, therefore not
single one out of his flock, so deeply as the
woman
:
who, having but ten
small pieces of money, should of these lose one
again the intensity of
her feeling would come infinitely short of the parental affection of a

father,
who, having but two sons, should behold one out of these two
go astray.
Thus we
find ourselves
moving
in ever
narrower and so
in
ever intenser circles of hope and fear and love
drawing
is
each suc-
cessive parable nearer to the innermost centre and heart of the truth.
In each case too
we may
see shadowed forth a greater guilt and

first
therefore a greater grace.
In the
parable the guilt
the smallest.
The sinner is set forth under Though this is but one side of
sin
is
the image of a silly wandering sheep. the truth, yet

the sinner
is it
a most real one, that

does,
is
oftentimes an ignorance
knows not what he

:
and
if in
one aspect he deserves wrath, in another claims pity

it
he
it
a sheep
that has gone astray, ere
knew what
it
it
was doing, ere

to
had even
is it
learned that
it
had a shepherd, that
belonged
fold.
So
with
a multitude of wanderers, in
whom
it
all this
knowledge was yet
latent,
and who went astray before ever
was
effectually called out.
But there
are others, set forth under the lost money,
who having known themimage of the Great

is
selves to be God's, to be stamped with his image, the
King, on their souls, do yet throw themselves away, renounce their high
birth,
and wilfully
is
lose themselves in the world.
Their sin
greater?
but there
a sin yet greater than theirs behind
to
have known something of the love
thing of him, not as our King

as our Father in
love,
to have known somewho has stamped us with his image, but whose house we are, and yet to have slighted that
of God
the sin of the prodigal
and forsaken that house

is
this is the
crowning
this sin,*
guilt
and yet the

bring back
grace of God
sufficient to forgive
even
and
to
such a wanderer even as
this to himself.
to the
The
first
parable of the series had a peculiar fitness addressed
spiritual rulers of the
Jewish people.
They
who
too
were shepherds
title,
con;
;
tinually charged, rebuked, warned, under^this very
(Ezek. xxxiv.
Zech.
xi. 16,)
under-shepherds of him
set forth his

(Isai.
own watchful
xl.
cf.
tenderness for his people under the same image;

xxxi. 10; Ezek. xxxiv. 12; xxxvii.
11
Jer.
24; Zech.
xiii.
7;
Ps. xxiii.
Bengel
Ovie, drachma,
filius
pcrditus
peccator stupidus, sui
plane nesciu?,
sciens et voluntarius.
THE LOST SHEEP.

1
;
293
Ixxx. 1
;)
yet now
were they finding

to
fault with Christ for doing
that very thing
which they ought, and which the name they bore should
have done.
have reminded them they ought,

themselves no seekers of the
they
lost,*
Not only were they
no bringers back of the strayed, but
murmured
against him, the Shepherd of Israel, the great Shepherd
of the sheep, because he
came doing
in
his
own
person, what they his
deputies so long had neglected to do, because he
came
to
make good
what they had marred.

In the
common
things of our daily experience, a sheep which could

also
wander away from, could

itself
wander back
:
to,
the fold.
it
But
it is
not
so with a sheep of God's pasture
this
could lose, but
could not find
again
there
is in
sin a centrifugal tendency,
and of necessity the and further away.

its
wanderings of
Therefore,
if
it it ;
this
sheep could
only be further
shall be found at all, this
can only be by
lost, it
Shepherd
ever.f
for the
going to seek
It
without
this,
being once
must be
lost for
might
at first sight at the
appear as though the Shepherd were caring

all
one strayed,
the other
^^
expense and risk of
the others, leaving as he does
ninety
and nine
in the wilderness."
But
it
need hardly be
observed, that
we
are not to understand
of " the wilderness," as of a

the haunt of wild beasts or of
sandy or rocky
desert, without herbage,
wandering robber hordes,

but exactly the
St.
but
rather as wide-extended grassy plains,
steppes or savannahs, called desert because without habitations of men,

fittest
place for the pasture of sheep.
Thus we
read in
was much grass in a place which another Evangelist calls a desert, and no doubt we commonly attach to " desert " or " wilderness," in Scripture, images of far more uniform barrenness and
John
(vi.
10) that there
desolation and dreariness than the reality
would warrant.
Parts,
it is
true,
of any of the large deserts of Palestine or Arabia, are as dreary and

desolate as can be imagined, though quite as
much from
rock as from
is in
sandy levels
yet
we
learn from travellers, that on the whole there
* One of the charges against the
false shepherds,
Ezek. xxxiv. 4,
is just this, t6
t Augustine presses this point, observing how, though nothing

either sending by the
is
said of the father
hand of another
or
himself looking for the prodigal son, yet
we
are not therefore to see in his return, in his " I will arise," an independent resolution
of the sinner's own, but rather to complete that parable from

19)
:
this,
(Enarr. in Ps. Ixxvii.

pastoris,
Redit ovis perdita, non tamen in viribus
suis, sed in
humeris reportata
quae se perdere potuit,
dum
sponte vagaretur, se autem invenire non potuit, nee omnio
inveniretur, nisi pastoris misericordia iqusereretur.
Non enim
Surgam
ab
et
ille
filius
ad banc
ovem non
nisi
pertinet, qui reversus in
semetipsum
dixit,
et ibo
ad patrem
meum.
Occulta itaque vocatione et inspiratione etiam ipse qusesitus est et resuscitatus, non-
ab
illo
qui vivificat
1
omnia:
et inventus, a quo, nisi
illo
qui perrexit salvare et
qusrere quod perierat
294
THE LOST SHEEP.

much
;*
those deserts, or wildernesses,
greater variety of scenery,
much
more
left
to refresh
is
the eye,
much
larger extents of fertile or at least grassy

so that the residue of the flock are
land, than
commonly supposed
he finds
it.
here in their ordinary pasturage, while the shepherd goes after that
is lost till
one which
Christ's
Incarnation was a girding of himself to go after his lost

life
sheep.
His whole
upon earth,
;
his entire
walk
in the flesh,
following of the strayed one
for in his
own words he was come,

he found
it.
this
was a was
which
the very purpose of his coming, namely, " to seek and to save that
was
lost."
And he
sought his
own
till
He was
not
weary
with the greatness of the

his flesh,
way
he shrank not when the thorns wounded

followed us into the deep of our misery,
and tore his
feet.
He
came under the extremity of our malediction. For he had gone forth to seek his own till he had found it, and would not pause till then. And having found, how tenderly the shepherd handles that sheep which has
cost
him
all this
labor and fatigue

it
he does not punish

to the fold
:
it;
he does not
smite, nor even harshly drive
back
it
nay, he does not delishoulders, and himself
ver
it
to a servant,
but he lays
upon
it
his
ownf
carefully carries
it, till
he brings
to the fold.
In this last circumstance
we
recognize an image of the sustaining i^nd supporting grace of Christ,

till
which does not cease

tion.
his
rescued are made partakers of
final salva-
But when some press and make much of the weariness which this load must have caused to the shepherd, seeing here an allusion to his sufferings, " who bare our sins in his own body,":}: upon whom were laid
* This
is
the admirable description of a late
traveller in
the East
" Stern and
monotonous as may be
pose
lie
it is
called the general features of a desert, let not
the reader sup-
all
barren.
before you, like a
tawny Atlantic, one yellow wave

fertility,
There are indeed some accursed patches, where scores of miles But far rising before another.
where the earth shoots
forth a jun-
from unfrequenlly there are regions of wild

gle of aromatic shrubs,
and most delicious are the sensations conveyed
to the
parched
European, as the camel treads down the underwood with his broad
to the
foot,
and scatters
winds the exhalations of a thousand herbs.
There are other

:
districts,
where
the hard and compact gravel would do honour to a lady's shrubbery
in these regions
you meet with dwarf

tion,
trees,
and long ridges of low bare rocks, of
fantastic configura-
along whose base you find the yellow partridge and the black-eyed gazelle."
'Er-i
rotij Mjiovi l
+
t
av
T ov.
Cajclan: Impositio ovis in humeros redemptio
est
humani generis
Melancthon
:
in
proprio
corpore, et hoc quia sponte fecit, ideo gaudens describitur.

tu suavis significatio inserta passionis Christi
t.
:
Est in tex-
e.
ipse
onus nostrum transfer!
in se
ipsum.
ovem inventam ponit in humeros sues, The lines of Prudentius {Hymn, post
Jejun.,) have
much beauty
lUe ovem morbo residem gregique
Perditam sano,mal6 dissipantem
THE LOST SHEEP.

the iniquities of us
all, this
295
seems
to
me
a missing here of the true signifi-
For rather the words " till he find it," I should take as having told the whole story of the painfulness of his way, who came in search of his lost creature, a way which led him, as he would not cease till he
cance.
found his own,
to the cross
and
to the
grave
and
this is
now
rather the
story of his triumphant return * to heaven with the trophies that he had
won, the
spoil that
he had delivered from the

reaching
lion's jaws.
And
as the
man
home summons
friends and neighbours to
be sharers in his f joy, as they had been sharers in his anxiety, for he speaks of the sheep as one with the loss of which they were acquainted
and had sympathized, so Christ declares that there shall be joy

venly
brought back
again
in
heaven
on the occasion of one sinner repenting, one wandering sheep of the heafold
to
it
is,
that
heaven and earth form but one

is
kingdom, being bound together by that love which

fectness."
" the bond of per-
He
keeps indeed back, as far as any distinct declaration in

but since he
it
words goes, who the bringer back

conduct
pear
is
justifying
lîs
own
in inviting sinners to repentance, lets

it
sufficiently plainly apto the
who
is,
that
it
is
even himself, who returning
heavenly
places shall cause jubilee there.
For we must observe,

to
that he speaks
of this joy as future, as one hereafter
be
not
as yet does he contem-
plate the occasion of this joy as having been given, since not as yet has
he returned
to his
house, not as yet risen and ascended, leading captivity
captive, and bringing with
him
his
rescued and redeemed.
Nor should
Vellus affixis vepribus per hirtae
Devia
silvse
Impiger pastor revocat, lupisque

Gestat exclusis, humeros gravatus
;
Inde purgatain revehens aprico
Reddit Reddit
ovili,
et pratis viridique carapo,
Vibrat impexis ubi nulla lappis

Spina, nee germen sudibus perarmat
Carduus horrens:
Sed frequens
palniis
nemus,
et reflexa
Vernat herbarum coma, turn perennis

Gurgitern vivis vitreurn fluentis
Laurus obumbrat.
* Gregory the Great (Horn. 34 in Evang.)
:
Inventa ove ad
rediit.
;
domum
:
redit, quia
Pastor noster reparato homine ad regnum coelesle
Bengal
Jesus Christus
plane in ascensione
t
domum
rediit
Gregory the Great (Ho7n. 34 in Evang.) on ing remark Non dicit, Congratulamini inventaa
:
coelum ejus domus est Joh. xiv. 2. this " Eejoice with me" has a strikovi, sed niihi
;
quia videlicit ejus

Izetitiae
gaudium
est vita nostra, et ciim
nos ad caelum reducimur, solemnitatem
ejus
implemus.
'
296
THE LOST SHEEP.

you"
we miss
tell
the slight yet majestic intimation of the dignity of his person

in that ''I
which he gives
seen, (John
say unto
who know,
who, when
you of heavenly
iii.
things, tell
I
11)
say
to
you of mine own, of things which I have you that this joy shall be in heaven on the
had declared, there would be nothing
is
recovery of the
lost.
Were
perplex us
this all that Christ

;
to
but he declares further, that there

tha7i
not merely joy over
one penitent, but more joy over him "

sons which need no repentance."
over ninety arid nine just per-
Now we
can easily understand, how,
among men, there should be more joy

portion
for a small portion
which has been
endangered, than for the continued secure possession of a

:
much
larger
we might
all
say with Luther,
it is
the mother, concentrating for

to a by-stand-
the
moment
her affection on her sick child, and seeming
er to love none but that only, and rejoicing at that one child's recovery
more than
is
at the
uninterrupted health of
all
the others.
Or
to
use
gustine's beautiful words,* "
What
then takes place in the soul,

it
Auwhen it
it
more delighted
at finding or
?
recovering the things
loves, than if
had ever had them

things are
Yea, and other things witness hereunto, and
all
full of witnesses, crying out, 'So it is.' The conquering commander triumpheth ; yet had he not conquered, unless he had fought, and the more peril there was in the battle, so much the more joy is there The storm tosses the sailors, threatens shipwreck ; all in the triumph. wax pale at approaching death sky and sea are calmed, and they are
;
exceeding joyed, as having been exceeding afraid.

his pulse threatens
friend is sick,
and
danger
is
all
who long
for his
recovery are sick in
mind with him.
He
restored,
is
though as yet he walks not with his
former strength, yet there
such joy as was not when before he walked

?
sound and strong. "f Yet whence arises the disproportionate joy
concerning
it.
clear-
ly from the unexpectedness of the result, from the temporary uncertainty
knows
the end from the beginning,
But nothing of the kind could find place with God, who whose joy needs not to be provoked
and heightened by a fear going before ; nor with him need the earnest love for the one, as in the case of the mother and her children, throw into
the back-ground, even for the moment, the love and care for the others
so that the analogy hardly holds good.
* Confessions,
h. 3, c. 3.
have taken the
liberty of using here
and once before
the noble translation of the Confessions, published in the Library of the Fathers.
i Thus too Bernard says (In Cant., Serm. 29)
Nescio autem quomodo
tenerijts
mihi
adstricti sunt qui
post increpatoria et per increpatoria
tandem convaluerunt de
spoken
infirmitate, quJim qui fortes ab initio permanserunt,
non indigentes istiusmodi medica-
mento,
words which
are the
more valuable
to
it.
for the illustration of the text, as
with no immediate reference
THE LOST SHEEP.

And
ance "
since the prophet says, " All
all
297
yet further, there being said to be any " which need no repent-
is difficult,
we
like sheep
have gone
astray ;" and therefore
must have need
to
search and try back our

quite
ways
nor do the explanations
commonly given
remove the per-
plexity.*
We
may
indeed get rid both of this difficulty and the other,
by seeing here an example of the Lord's severe yet loving irony. These
ninety and nine, not needing repentance, would then be
like those
whole who need
not, or
count that they need not, a physician,
self-
righteous persons, persons therefore displeasing in the eye of God, and
whose present
life
could naturally cause no joy in heaven
so that
it
would be easy to understand how a sinner's conversion would cause more joy than their continuance in their evil state. But the Lord could and moreover, the whole conhardly have meant to say merely this the ninety and struction of the parables is against such an explanation
;
:
nine sheep have not wandered, the nine pieces of money have not been
lost,
the elder brother has not left his father's house.
The one view
of
the parables which affords a solution of the difficulties appears to be

this
that
we understand
these ^'[righteous " as really such, but also that

legal, is of the old dispensation, so that the
their righteousness is
least in the
merely
a part
kingdom of heaven is greater than they. The law had done of its work for them, keeping them from gross positive transgresits
sions of
enactments, and thus they needed not, like like the publicans
;
and sinners, repentance on account of such

other part of
its
but
it
had not done an-
work,
it
had
not brought them, as

it
God intended
to
it
should, to a conviction of sin,

Christ,
had
not
prepared them
receive
and gladly
to
embrace
his salvation.
to
The
;
publicans and sinners,
though by another path, had come

there
him
and he now declares that
was more
As
;
real
ground of joy over one of these,| who were now
* grare
for instance that

;
by Grotius
Quibua non
est
opus de toto
vitae
genere mire-
and by Calvin
Nomen
poenitentiae specialiter ad
eorum conversionem
stringitur, qui penitus
k Deo aversi, quasi h morte in vitam resurgunt.

;
Nam
alioqui
continua in totam vitam esse debet pcEnitentiae meditatio

cessitate eximitur,
nee quisquam ab hac ne-
quum
singulos sua vitia ad quotidianum profectum sollicitent.
very curious, but not very fortunate, scheme for getting rid of the difficulty which atThe ninetytends the wrords " who need no repentance^ has been proposed by some.
nine just signify the whole unfallen creation, the world of angels.
" These," says
Theophylact, who however proposes the interpretation not as his own, {Jiaaiv Tives,) " the good Shepherd left in the wilderness, that is, in the higher heavenly places, for
heaven
is this
wilderness, being sequestered from
all
worldly tumult, and

lost
fulfilled
with
all tranquillity
and peace," and came
to seek the
wandering and
human
:
nature.
The
plus
interpretation finds
more favour with Hilary, Comni.
in Matth., xviii. 10.
t Here the illustration of Gregory the Great
may
fairly be applied
Dux
in praelio
eum
militem
diligit,
qui post
fugam conversus,
fortiter
hostem premit, quira ilium
20
298
THE LOST PIECE OF MONEY.

faith,
entering into the inner sanctuary of
than over ninety and nine of
themselves,
in
who
lingered at the legal vestibule, refusing to go further
PARABLE
XXIII.

Luke
xv. 8-10.
The
that
parable which has just gone before, has naturally anticipated
much
might have been said upon
this,
and yet we must not think so poorly

to
of our Lord's wisdom as a speaker of parables, as
conclude them
merely
qui
identical.
It
would be against
nunquam
alii
all
analogy of preceding parables
nunquam
;
terga praebuit et
aliquid fortiter gessit.
And Anselm
{Horn.
12)
Sunt
aliqui justi, qui licet justi vivant et
ab
illicitis
se contineant,
magna tamen
bona nunquam operantur.
Et sunt
qui prius seculariter et criminose vixerunt, sed

illicit^
postmodum redeuntes ad
lore
cor suum, quia se
egisse considerant, ex ipso suo do-
compuncii, inardescunt ad
difficiiia sancti
amorem
Dei, seseque in magnis virtutibus exercent,
cuncta etiam
certaminis appetunt, omnia
mundi blandimenta
derelin-
quunt
et quia se errasse a
Deo
conspiciunt,
damna
praecedentia lucris sequentibus re-
compensant.
* There
is
no image upon which the early Church seems

in the very
to
have dwelt with

his lost sheep.
greater delight than this of Christ as the good Shepherd bringing
home
We
have abundant confirmation of
this
many gems,
seals,
fragments of
and other early Christian relics which have reached us, on which Christ is thus From a passportrayed as bringing back a lost sheep to the fold upon his shoulders.
glass,
ing allusion in Tertullian, {De Poenit.,
c. 7,
10,)
we
learn that
it
on the
which
burden
chalice of the
in
Holy Communion.
Christ appears in the
was in his time painted same character of the
Good Shepherd
sheep at his
;
bas-reliefs
on sarcophagi, and paintings in the catacombs
one of
his
last is believed to
feet,
be as early as the third century.
Sometimes there are other
generally two, looking u~ with apparent pleasure at
him and
hand he most often holds the seven-reeded pipe of Pan, the attractions of divine love, with his left he steadies the burden which he is bearing on his Sometimes he is sitting down, as if weary with the length of the way. shoulders.
in his right
And
it is
observable that this representation always occupies the place of honour, the
In
centre of the vault or tomb.
Hunter's Sinnbilder der
Alt. Christ., v. 1, pp.
60-65, there are various details on the subject, and
many
copies of these portraitures,
which are interesting specimens of early Christian

f)p.
art.
See too Bossio's Eom. Sotterr.

of the same, and
339, 348, 349, 351, 373, 383, 387,
for various delineations
Didron's Iconogr. Chretienne, p. 346.
THE LOST PIECE OP MONEY.

to
299
two said merely the same thing, twice over. The Hid Treasure, the Leaven and the Mustard Seed, at first Pearl and the
presume
that these
sight appear the same, and the second but to repeat the
first,
and
yet, as
we have
selves
;
found, on closer inspection important differences reveal them-
and so
is
it
here.
If the
shepherd
in
the
last
parable was
Christ, the
that
is
woman
is
in this
by her
signified
may, perhaps, be the Church ;* or if we say the Divine Wisdom,f which so often in Proverbs
is
described as seeking the salvation of men, and
here as elsewhere
set forth as a person
(Luke
xi.
49,) and not an attribute, this will be no

into one,
different view.
For rather these two explanations flow

is
when
we keep
Holy
tries
in
mind how the Church
the organ in and through which the

as the
Spirit seeks for the lost, and
how only
it
Church
to
is
quickened
and informed by the Divine

should be personified as a
Spirit, is
stirred
up
these active minis-
of love for the seeking and saving of souls.
That the Church

nor has the thought
woman
in
is
only natural
of the Holy Ghost as a mother been at ditferent times far from men's
minds4
the
Keeping prominently
in so far as
it is
mind then
in
is
that
it is
only the Church,
because and
dwelt
that
it
by the
Spirit,
which appears as
woman
seeking her
lost,
it,
only as the Spirit says " Come,"

in the three parables the three in their
that the Bride can
say
we
shall
have
Persons of the Holy Trinity, albeit not
order, since other re-
spects prevailed to give the parables a different succession.
Moreover,
any reluctance
the
to
accept this interpretation, as though
it
were putting
Church moved ; and
too near
upon an equality with
irs
Lord,
is
in this
way
re-
besides, if
we do
find in this parable a picture of the

its
Church
it
carrying forward the same work which
Lord auspicated and com-
menced, what
cause he went
is
this but in
agreement with Christ's own words, that

that he did and
should do the same works

to the
greater
only, however,
in
be-
Father, and shedding abroad the Holy Ghost, him-
self carried on from heaven the
work which he had begun
his
own
person upon earth
In the one piece of money, f which the
woman
loses out of her ten,
* Ambrose
tor,
Qui sunt
1
isti,
pater, pastor, mulier
nonne Deus
pater, Christus pas-
mulier Ecclesia
t Gregory the Great (Horn. 34 in

pientia.
i
Evang
Ipse etenim
Deus, ipse
et
Dei Sa-
ing and justifying
See some interesting remarks in Jerome {Comm. in Esai. xl. 3, p. 303) explainthis language while at the same time he guards with saying; In
;
divinitate nulius est sexus.
Christ claims too for himself the mother's heart in his
affecting words,
Luke
xiii.
it is
34.
^ In the original,
not indefinitely a piece of money, but a drachma, the com-
monest of Greek
coins.
Except during a part of the Maccabaean
rule, the
Jews never
300

delighted to trace a resem-
expositors, both ancient and modern, have
blance to the
human
soul,
which was originally stamped with the image
image," Gen.
and superscription of the great King,* (" God created man in his own retains traces of the mint from i. 27,) and which still
it
which
proceeded, though by sin the image has been nearly effaced,
and the superscription has well nigh

as the piece of
so
to
become
illegible. "j"
Nor
its
is this all
money
sin, is
is lost
for all
useful purposes lo
right ownei",
man, through
become
unprofitable, and worse than unprofitable,

is
God, who has not from him that service which
due.
But as the woman having lost her piece of money, will " light a candle and sioeepX the house, and seek diligently till she fold it ;" even
so the Lord, through the ministrations of his Church, gives diligence to
recover the
to the
lost sinner,
to
bring back the piece of

it
money
that
was
lost
treasury of God, from which originally
issued.
The meanIn-
ing which the Mystics have often found in the lighting of the candle
or lamp,
namely
that there
is
an allusion here
the
to the
mystery of the
carnation
the
divine glory which
Saviour had
within, shining
coined any
*
money
of their own.
Tlie Herodian coins,
now
found in collections, were
rather medals struck on particular occasions, than money.
Thus Augustine {Enarr.in Ps.
exxxviii.)
Sapientia Dei perdiderat

ipsius
drachmam.
Quid est Drachma? Numus in quo numo imago erat Compare Ignatius, {Ad 3Iagn.,c.5,) though he refers not to
uara ivo, S
Toii KOtxôv
[ilv
Imperatoris nostri.
this parable:
'Ecnv
o't
vofiia-
Qeuv, S 61 Kocjiov,
ol 6i ttiotoi
ko'i
sKaarov avriov Wioj/ âpaKTijpa
iiriKeiftevov ;^',
uKtaroi
Tovrov,
cv dyaTrji âpaKTPipa
it
Oeov YlaTpos'iia
'ijjtov
XpiOToC.
It is true
that against this view
here particularly named, had not, like
may be said that the Greek drachma, the coin the Roman denarius, (Matt. xxii. 20,) the image
it,
and superscription of the emperor upon or tortoise, or head of Pallas.

t
but
commonly some image,
as of an owl,
The
says:
erroneous reading, evertit, for everrit, prevailed in the copies of the Vulgate
It
during the middle ages.
appears as early as Gregory the Great, {Horn. 34 in Evang.)
who
Domus et)er<i7ur, quum consideratione reatiis sui humana conscientia perAnd Thauler's interpretation a good deal turns on that very word Deus turbatur. hominem quaeril, domumque ejus penitus evertit, quomodo nos solemus, aliquod requi:
rentes, cuncta evertere, et loco suo
movere, donee invenire contingat quod quaerimus.
So Wiclif: " Turneih up so down the house." Drachma reperitur, dum in homine similitudo conditoris re H. de Sto Victore para tur and Bernard {De Grat. et Lib. Arb.,c. 10): Adhuc liic foeda et deformis jacuisset imago, si non evangelica ilia mulier lucernam accenderet, id est, Sapientia in carne appareret, everreret domum, videlicet vitiorum, drachmam suam reqiiireret quam perdiderat hoc est imaginem suam, quae native spoliata decore, sub pelle peccati sor:
dens tamquam in pulvere latitabat inventam tergeret, et tolleret de rcgione dissimilitudinis, pristinamque in speciem reforraatam,similem faceret illam in gloria, sanctorum,
:
immo
sibi ipsi
;
per omnia redderet quandoque conformem, ciim illud Scripturae videlicet

ei
impleretur
Bicuti est.
Scimus quia cilm apparuerit, similes
erimus
quoniam videbimus eum
THE LOST PIECE OP MONEY.

through the fleshly covering which only in part concealed
of course give vvay,
if
it,*
301
this
must
we
take the parable as
propose.
Rather the
hints of such
lighting of the candle
must be explained by the help and

v, 14,
passages as these, namely Matt,
15
Phil.
ii.
15
Ephes.
v. 13.
The
candle
is
the
word of God
this
candle the Church holds forth, as
she has and exercises a ministry of the
Word.
It is
by the
light of this
Word
find
that sinners are found
that they find themselves, that the
Church
fit
them.f
to
Having
this
candle
now
to assist
her in her search she prosine
ceeds
sweep the house, which, as Bengel well remarks, non
pulvere.
What
a deranging of the house for a time

to settle
;
how does
the dust
which had been allowed

fly
about in every direction

to
down and accumulate begin to rise and how unwelcome that which is going for-
ward more
any
that
may
be the house and have no interest in the finding

lost.
it
of that which has been
Thus
that
let
it
it is
with the word of God.
Ever-
the charge against

it
is,
turns the world upside down, even
as indeed
does.
For only
that
Word
is
be proclaimed, and
;
much much
of latent aversion
to the truth
becomes now open enmity

changed
into
how how
of torpid alienation against

is
God
active hostility
what an outcry
the world alone.
there against the troublers of Israel, against the wit-
nesses that torment the dwellers upon earth, the
men
that will not leave
But amid
all
this,
while others are making outcry
about the dust and inconvenience, she that bears the candle of the Lord
is
diligently looking
meanwhile
till
for
her
lost,
not ceasing her labour,
her care, her diligence,
she has recovered her
own
again.
this parable
We
went
to
must not omit

look for
his
to
remark a ditference between
and
the preceding, which
is
more than
is lost,
accidental.
In that the shepherd

;
lost
sheep in the wilderness
but
it
is
the
house that this piece of

is
money
is
and there by the consequence that

to this.
sought
for.:]:
There
then a progress from that parable
* Thus Cajetan
Lucerna accensa niysterium
est Incarnationis,
Verbum
in
came,
tanquam lux
in testa.
t So Tertullian {De
Fudic,
c. 7)
Drachmam ad
lucernae
lumen repertam, quasi

the house, and not
ad Dei verbum.
t
Origen also presses the

it,
fact that this
money was found within
without
though with a different purpose.

fairly gives
He
is
dealing with Gen. xxvi. 18, to
which he very
which the
a deeper and allegorical interpretation, besides that which

this,
lay on the surface,

life,
namely
that
is,
those stopped wells are the fountains of eternal

sin,
Philistines, that
Satan and
had choked, but which our Isaac, the

he brings into comparison
son of gladness, opened anew
for us.
And
observing that such wells, though stopped

iv. 14,)
indeed, are within every one of us, (compare John

this parable, noting that the lost
it
:
money was
not found without the house, but within

is
for,
he would say, at the bottom of every man's soul there
this
image of God,
mislaid indeed and quite out of sight, overlaid with a thousand other images, covered
302

earthly house, the visible Church,
The
there
to
now
first
appears.
In that other
there was the returning of the Son to the heavenly places, but in this
is
intimation of a church which has been founded upon earth, and

also sinners are restored.
which
And
there are other slighter varia-
tions between the two parables, explicable at once on the same supposition that we have there the more immediate ministry of Christ, and
here the secondary ministry of his Church.
have found
for
it is
my sheep"
not so the
in
no sense hers as the
The shepherd says, "I woman, " I have found ilie coin" He says, " which was sheep was his.
lost:" but she, " which /lost," confessing a fault and carelessness of
her own, which was the original cause of the loss
even as
it
must have
be
been;
lost
for a
sheep strays of
itself,
but a piece of
money could only
by a certain negligence on the part of such as should have kept it. The woman having found her own, " calleth her friends, and her (Compare neighbours together/' that they may be sharers in her joy.
Ruth iv. 14, 17.) work of the parable,
It
is
only natural that, according
to the
ground-
this
being a woman, the friends and neighbours she
summons should
ing the words,
for
be described as female also, though this escapes us in
the English version.
That they are
so does not hinder us in
apply-
we have indeed applying them, the angels;

to
in the next verse the
Lord's warrant
is
whose place we
it
shall observe
;
not
" in heaven" in this parable which
was
in the last
for this is the re-
joicing together of the redeemed and elect creation upon earth at the re-
pentance of a sinner.
The
angels that walk up and
down
the earth,
that are present in the congregations of the faithful, offended at aught
unseemly among them,

most of
all
(I Cor. xi. 10,) joying to behold their order, but
joying
when
a sinner
is
converted,
there
shall
be joy be-
before them,
Spirit,
when the Church of the redeemed, quickened by the Holy summons them to join with it in consenting hymns of thanksgivstill
with dust and defilement, but which

it first
may
be found, and in his hands from
whom
came,
may
again recover
its first
brightness, and the sharpness of outline which

:
it
had
at the beginning.
His words are {In Gen. Horn. 13)
Mulier
ilia
quae perdi-
derat
drachmam, non
et
illam invenit extrinsecus, sed in
domo
sua.
posteaquam accendit
lucernam,
mundavit
domum
sordibus et immunditiis, quos iongi temporis ignavia et
hebetudo congesserat,
adhibeas
intra te
tibi
et ibi invenit
drachmam.
Et tu ergo,
si
accendas lucernam,
si
illuminationem
SpiriiCls Sancti, et in
lumine ejus videas lumen, invenies
drachmam.
fecit
litudinem suam
eum
Ciim enim faceret hominem ex initio Deus, ad imaginem et simiet banc imaginem non extrinsecus, sed intra eum collocavit.
;
Ha2C
in to videri
Iste
repleta.
non poterat, donee domus lua sordida erat, immunditiis et ruderibus fons scientiae intra te erat situs, sed non poterat fluere,quia Philistini reterra, et
plcverant
eum
fecerant in te
imaginem
ilia,
terreni.
Sed
tu portasti
quidem tunc
imaginem
terreni,
nunc ver6
his auditis ab
omni mole
et oppressione terren& per
Verbum Dei
purgatus,
imaginem
coDlestis in te splendescere facito.
THE PRODIGAL
ing to
SON.
303
if the
God
for the
recovery of a
lost soul.
For indeed
first
" sons of (Job
God*' shouted for joy and sang together at the

xxxviii. 7,)
creation,
how much more when

according
new
creation has found place, at

life
;
the birth of a soul into the light of everlasting

Pet.
i.
(Ephes.
iii.
10
12
;) for
to that exquisite
word of
host.
St. Bernard's, the tears
of penitence are the wine of angels,* and their conversion, as Luther

says, causes
Te Deums among the heavenly
PARABLE XXIY.
THE PRODIGAL SON.

Luke
xv.
11-32.
if
We
have now come
to a
parable which,
it
be permitted
to
compare
all
things divine one with another,

the parables of Scripture
;
we might
call the pearl
and crown of
if
as
it is
also the
most elaborate,
again
we
ap-
might venture
to
use a word, which has an evident unfitness
when
plied to the spontaneous and the free, but

all
the minor details seems to suggest
one
which yet the completeness of

too containing within itself
such a circle of doctrine as abundantly
to justify the title

it.
Evangelium
its
in
Evangelio, which has been sometimes given
In regard of
different
great
primary application, there have always been two Church.
views
in the
There are those who have seen
in the
two sons the Jew and

his father's house, the
its
Gentile, and in the
younger son's departure from
history of the great apostacy of the Gentile world, in his return

tion into the privileges of the
recep-
new covenant
as
in the elder brother a
lively type of the narrow-hearted self-extolling Jews,
who grudged
same
all
that
the "sinners of the Gentiles " should be admitted to the as themselves, and
blessings
who on
this
account would not themselves "go
m."
Others, again, have beheld in the younger son a pattern of
those who,
whether Jews or Gentiles, whether
in that old dispensation
which was
* Poenitentium lacrymffi, vinum Angelorum

Christian poet sings:
and with
allusion to this parable the
Amissa drachma regio

Recondita
est aerario
Et gemma, deterso
luto,
Nitore vincit sidera.
304
then drawing
to
THE PRODIGAL
an end, or brought up
in
SON.
the
bosom of the Christian
Church, have widely departed from God, and after having tasted the
misery which follows upon
all
departure from him, have by his grace
been brought back
to
him, as
to the
one source of blessedness and
life
while they
self,
in the elder brother
have seen either a narrow form of real
righteousness, or, accepting his words to be only his

of Pharisaical self-righteousness,
one
righteous in his
own account of himown sight,

the other
not in the Lord's.
They who maintain

makes
appears decisive,) that
this last explanation, object to
which
the two sons to represent the

it
Jew and
Gentile, (and the objection

;
is
alien to the
scope of the parable
for that
was spoken
(ver. 1, 2,)
in reply to the
murmurings of
the Scribes and Pharisees,
who were
offended that Jesus received and consorted with publito stand,

it
cans and sinners. Before that interpretation can have any claim
must be shown
that these publicans
and sinners were heathens. Tertulpublicans were always heathens

to
;
lian, indeed, boldly asserts that the
but
he was not very careful what he asserted when he had a point
prove,
which he had in the present instance, namely this, that no encouragement could be drawn from this Scripture for the receiving back of great offenders into Church communion. But there is abundant evidence, some Scriptural, and more derived from other sources, that many of the
publicans, probably of those in Judsea,
ber,
if
not
all,
yet far the greater
were of Jewish
birth.
Zacchasus was
at the receipt of
"a
son of
numAbraham," (Luke
to the
xix. 9,)
and Levi, who sat

:
customs, must needs have
been so too
of John.
and publicans were among those who came

vii.
baptism
(Luke countrymen on a
29.*)
They were
;
indeed placed by their fellow-
level with heathens
and some heathen publicans even
within the limits of Judjea there
whom
Jesus received, and with

for
;
may have been, but doubtless these whom he consorted, were publicans of
Jewish origin,
walk upon earth

for
with none but Jews did he familiarly live during his he was " not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house
xii.
of Israel;" and John
20-22 shows us how unusual a thing

this rule.f
it
was
him
to
break through
* See also Lightfoot, Ilor. Heb., on Matt.

t
v.
4G.
Many
of these
arguments
in pioof tliat
the publicans of the
New
Testament
were Jews, are adduced by Jerome. {Ep. 21, ad Damasum.)

great aim of the latter in his treatise
He seems
lost in
wonder
(vehementer admiror) at the audacity of Tertullian's assertion to the contrary.
The
all
De
it
Pudicitia,
c.
7-9, written after he had forto
saken the Catholic Church,
is
by proving that contrary,
rob the parable of
the
encouragement and consolation which
might otherwise afford
to the penitent sinner
and
in his passionate
eagerness for
this,
he does not pause at a small matter,
for in-
stance, he declares the occasion of the parable to have been, quod Pharisaei publicanos
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
305
the nation, scorned and despised, and
These " publicans and sinners " then were Jews outcasts indeed of till the words of Christ had awa-
kened in them a nobler life, no doubt deserving all or nearly all the scorn and contempt which they found. The parables in this chapter are spoken to justify his conduct in the matter of receiving them, not to unfold
another and far deeper mystery
that of the calling of the Gentiles, of
which during his lifetime he gave only a few hints even to his chosen disciples, and which for long after was a difficulty and stumbling-block Much more would it now have been an offence to the even to them. to them therefore he would not needlessly have scribes and Pharisees opened it, least of all at a time when he was seeking to reconcile them
;
to his dealings,
and
if possible to
win them also
for his
kingdom.
Both
these reasons,
first,
that the parable
was spoken
to justify his reception,
not of Gentiles, but of
Jews
and secondly, that the mystery of the Gen-
et peccatores ethnicos adtnittentem
admire
his bold insertion of the ethnicos, nor
Dominum mussitabant. One cannot how elsewhere {Adv. Marc,
sufficiently
1.
4, c. 37,)
even our Lord's declaration that Zacchasus was " a son of Abraham," is not decisive with him, (Zacchseus etsi allophylus fortasse, tamen aliqua notitia. Scripturarum ex
commercio Judaico
skilled in all
afflatus,)
nor his proof from Deut.

it
xxiii. 18, that
no
Israelite could
have been a publican,
in
which matter
is
difficult to
think that one so profoundly

better.
Roman
antiquities should not have
known
His fear
is lest
sinners
should be overbold in their sin, having hope, like the prodigal, to find favour and grace
whenever they
will return to
their
God
and he asks, "

will care
Who
will
fear to
squander
is
what he can afterwards recover?

danger of always losing?"
Who
always to keep what he
not in
But
if
once, leaving the ground of Scripture, he comes to

in return,
arguments of
that
this sort,
we might demand
little
Is it
on calculations of
is
this sort
men
rush into sin? and not rather because they believe their good
?
there,
and
not in
it
:
God
And how
was he
really
promoting holiness
sin
in this his false zeal for
for if there
had been a deeper depth of
and
pollution, into that
no doubt the
prodigal would have sunk, but that his sure faith in the unchanging love of his father
extricated
him both from

is for
the sin in
which he was, and that yet further

fallen.
sin into
which
he would but
that there
for that inevitably
have
Tell
or,
it,
men after
they have sinned grievously

to the
them no hope of pardon,

distant hope of
which amounts
and you
same
thing, give
all
them only a dim uncertain
will not hinder
one by
these
precautions and warnings from squandering his goodly heritage, but you
may
hinder
apart
ten thousand poor miserable sinners that have discovered the wtetchedness of a
life
from God, from returnmg

riches of his mercy,
to
their Father's
house, from throwing themselves on the
and henceforward
of these that
is
living, not to the lusts of
men, but
to the will
of
God: and every one

from bad
thus kept at a distance will inevitably be falling
to worse, departing wider and wider from his God. It is worth while to see what motives^to repentance Chrysostom (Ad Theod. Laps., 1. 7) draws from this very parable, and his yet more memorable words {De Pa nit., Horn. 1. 4), where among ovros Totwv b vlds eiKdi/a tuv fieri TO Xovrpov (pcpci TicadvTuyv, which he other things he says,
proceeds to prove.
1.
Compare
the exposition of the parable by St.
Ambrose {De Pmnit.,
2, c. 3,) against the Novatianists.
306
tiles as fellow-heirs
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
with the Jews in the covenant of promise, was no;

first to
unfolded
till
a later period, and certainly not
saries, but to friends,
strongly recommend
men
more or
cavillers and adver-
the latter as the truer inter;
pretation.
Yet
will not the other therefore be rigorously excluded

to
for
the parable sets forth the relations of

relations exist,
it
God, and wherever those

found
will find a
its
less extensive application. It
a fulfilment, though not
primary one,
to
in the relations in
which Jew
and Gentile stood and advantages,

ties, that,
to
one another and

to the
God.
Again, what the whole

worst enormi-
Jewish people were
Gentile world in respect of superior privileges
in respect too of
its
freedom from some of

found
its
within
own body, were
the scribes and Pharisees to the pubit
licans and sinners, so that here too
its
application.
And
not less
within the Christian Church,
however wide may have been

whom
the sinner's
departure from God, he

the prodigal,
may
be encouraged to return by the example of

yet again a place in his father's house,
fact
who returning found
and in
that
it
his father's heart.
This blessed assurance we win from the

the
was sinners
wilhin the covenant to
whom
fain
he portrayed in the younger son,

it.
Lord had regard and not sinners, as Tertullian would
have us believe, without
Of these two
sons, " the younger said to his father, Give
me
the portion
His claiming of his share in this technical, of goods that falleth to me." and almost legal, form* is a delicate touch, characteristic of the entire
alienation from all
heart.
It is
home
affections
which has already found place

it,
in his
:
apparently too as a right that he claims

to
not as a favour
and such a right the Lord may mean

thors indeed
tion of Scripture,
assume
that he had.
Those auin illustrato
who have brought Oriental customs and manners

however they may prove such a
having been in
right or
custom
have
existed
among some
nations of the East, for example,

its
adduce no satisfactory proof of
among the Hindoos, force among the Jews.f

this his portion
But we need
fall to
not conceive of the
younger son as asking

;
of
goods as a right
only
as a favour
" That portion which will hereafter
me, which thou designest This portion, according
for
me
at last, I
would
fain
receive
it
now."
*
to the
Jewish laws of inheritance, would
Tu
in
7rc/?dAXoi/
jxipoi
rtji
ovaia;
ratam
haEreditatis
;
partem
the
phrase like so
many
t
Luke
is
classical
and happily selected
it is
'of
no rare occurrence in good
Greek authors.
deed
to
(See Wetstein, in loc.)

i/orgenZ., v. 5, p.
6,
1
RosENMULLER, ^Z<e uTid Neuc

something of the
sort,
15.
There
is
reference in-
Gen. xxv. 5,
where Abraham
to
;
in his lifetime
would
seem
to
have given the main body of his possessions
Isaac, having given

for
gifts also
to the sons of his concubines, evidently their portions
having endowed them with
these, he sent
them away.
But
it
seems there recorded as something unusual
proba-
bly a wise precaution to avoid disputes after his death.
THE PRODIGAL
What
to
SON.
307
(Deut. xxi. 17.)
it its
be the half of what the elder brother would receive.

does this request mean,
? It is
when we come
iii.
to give
spiritual sig.
nificance
the expression of man's desire to be independent of God,
be a
God
to himself,
(Gen.
5,)
and
to
lay out his
life
according
of
to
his
own
will and for his
own
pleasure.
It is
man growing weary
liv-
ing upon
his life into his
God and upon his fulness, and desiring to take the ordering of own hands, and believing that he can be a ibuntain of
All the subsequent sins of the younger son are
blessedness to himself.*
included in this one, as in their germ,

sin of sins.
to "
are but
the unfolding of this, the
We
express the true godly feeling which
Give me
my portion
is directly opposed of goods," in our daily petition, " Give us this
day our daily bread :" we therein acknowledge that we desire to wait continually upon God for the supply of our needs, both bodily and spiritual, that we recognize our dependence upon him as our true blessedness.
In the earthly relationship which supplies the groundwork of the parable, the fact of the son first
growing weary of receiving from

his
his father,
and presently altogether quitting
father's
;
house, has not the full
amount of guilt which
it
has in the heavenly
though, indeed, the conit
tempt, or slighting of the earthly relationship inevitably brings with

cont^Vnpt, or slighting of the heavenly
;
the former being constituted to

laid
lead us into the
knowledge of the blessings which are

is
up
in the
other
and where the lower

father
despised, the higher will inevitably be de-
spised also.
The
'^
divided unto them his living."-\
It
would have
little
profited to retain hiin at
become strange to that by bitter experience, the

ing of
home home
:
against his will,
who had
Such,
already in heart
discover,
rather he will let the
young man
folly of his request.
at least, is the dealis,
God
he has constituted
man
a spiritual being, that

to
a being
with a will
and when his service no longer appears
man
is
a perfect
to
freedom, and
man
promises himself liberty elsewhere, he

to discover, if
is
allowed
make
the
trial,:}:
and
needs
be,
by woful experience,
that
the only condition of his freedom
his cleaving unto
God
that depart-
ing from him, he inevitably

lusts
falls
under the horrible bondage of his own

devil.
and of the world, and under the tyranny of the

thtit it is
* Bernard observes,
velle dividere,
a sign of evil augury,

dulciiis possidetur, et
when
this
son
bonum
and
1
I.
incipit
quod
in
commune
habere solus, quod participatione
non minuitur, partitione amittitur. t Tdv (i'iov facultates so Mark
xii.
44
Luke
word
viii.
43
xxi.
John
3, p.
iii.
17, Tov 0iov rov
k6(thov.
There
is this
use of the
in Plato.
(Z?e Jiep.,
228,
Stallbaum's ed.)
t
See Chrysostom,
:
De
Paenit., Horn. 1. 4.
;
Augustine
ista tibi in
Si haerebis superiori, calcabis inferiora
si
autem recedas a
superiori
supplicium convertentur.
308
THE PRODIGAL
the
SON.
And now
younger son
" Lord
is
that
which he desired,
of himself
it.
that heritage of woe,"

Yet though he had thus craved and after a few days that he left his home.
and observes how the
life ;*
as he, too, shall shortly find
obtained his portion,

St.
it
was
not
till
Bernard sees a force
in this circumstance,
apostacy of the heart will often precede the apostacy of the

there
that
may
be an interval between them, though the last must of necesfirst.
sity sooner or later follow the

self,
The
;
sinner
is,
indeed, pleasing him-
but the divergence of his will and the will of

:
diately appear
''not
soon, however,
it
must
and thus
it
God does came to
not
imme-
pass, that
many days
suppose,
after the younger son gathered all together," turned,
we
a
may
all
that fell to his share into ready
money, or
into valua-
bles that he could easily carry with him, "
and
all
took his journey into
far country."
By
this
gathering together of
and departing, seems

energies and powers,
all
intimated the collecting, on man's part, of
all his
with the deliberate determination of getting, through their help,

gratification he
the
can out of the world,
ture to the Creator,
the open preference of the

is
not.:j:
crea-
the manifest turning of the back upon
"far country"
is
a world
where God
God.f The There he "wasted," or

little
scattered, "his substance with riotous living"
so quickly has the gather-
ing which was mentioned but now, issued in a scattering, so
was
it
a gathering that deserved the name.

sinner.
But there
is
no such waster as the
For a while,
it
may
be, the supplies

;
which the young man brought

this
with him into that far land lasted
and while
was
so,
he
may have
himself
all
congratulated himself, and counted that he had done wisely in claiming

liberty for himself.
Even
so the sinner for a while
may
flatter
that he
is
doing well at a distance from

:
God
he discovers not
its
at
once
his
misery and poverty

;
for the
world has
attractions,
and the end
flesh its pleasures
his affections are not all at
once laid waste, nor the
sources of natural delight drawn dry in an instant.
But
this is the
whereunto he
he has come
is
more or
less rapidly hastening.

all
The
time arrives
when
to
an end of
for
it
it
the satisfaction and joy
which the creature

" lohen he had
can give him

tern
and
was not
as a springing fountain, but a scanty cis-
then
fares with
him
as with the
prodigal
* De Divers., Senn. 8
voluntati,
Est autem interim

ii
homo
sub se, cihm proprise satisfaciens
necdum tamen
possidetur
vitiis et ptccatis.
Jam
hinc vero proficiscitur ad

patre.
regionem longinquam, qui prius quidem separatus

t Cajetan
:
crat, sed
necdum elongatus k
Confidentia in omnibus donis natura; et gratia; aninii et corporis, est
bonorum congregatio.
t
Augustine
h.
Regio longinqua oblivio Dei

aflectibus.
est.
Bede
Non
regionibus longc est
quisque
Deo, sed
THE PRODIGAL
spent
all,
SON.
309
and he began
to
there arose a mighty

too,
famine
to
in that land,
is
be in
want."* He,
in the land
begins to discover that there

dwell,
a great spiritual famine

love,
where he has chosen
a famine of truth and

ii.
and of all whereby the soul of man indeed lives ; he begins to discover his wretchedness and misery,-]- and that it is an evil thing, and a bitter,
to
have forsaken the Lord
his God.ij: (Jer.
19;
xvii.
5,6.)
In the
spiritual
world there need be no outward distresses or calamities, though
often there will be, bringing on this sense of famine.

possessions, supposing
man's outward
him
to
have such, may stand

all his
in their fulness,
go on abounding more and more,
external helps to felicity
may may
and
remain
while yet
in the true riches
he
may have
its
run through
sits
all,
may
be commencing "to be in want."
This famine
down, an unIn.
bidden guest, at rich men's tables, finds
way
into kings' palaces.
these palaces, at those feasts, the immortal soul
may
be famishing, yea,
ready
to
"perish with hunger."

see portrayed in this parable the history of the great apos-
When we
tacy of the heathen world from the knowledge and worship of the true
God, as well as the departure of a single soul,

* Or rather " he began himself
to be in
this
wasting of goods will
want
:
:"
the famine
reached even
to
him.
The Vulgate
has not missed the force of the airos
Et ipse
ccepit egere.
(See Winer's
Grammatik, p. 142.) t Ambrose {Exp.
in
Luc,
:
1.
7, c.
215)
Etenim qui
recedit a verbo Dei

:
esurit,
sittit:
quia non in solo pane vivit homo, sed in omni verbo Dei
qui recedit i thesauro, eget
dissolvitur.
X
qui recedit k fonte,

ii
qui recedit
a.
sapientia, hebetatur: qui recedit
virtute,
Thus, when a great English poet, with everything that fortune, and rank, and
pleasure and not and who had laid out his whole yet before he had reached half the allotted period of man, already exclaimed.
life
genius could give him,

duty,
for
for
My
days are in the yellow
leaf,
;
The flowers, the fruits, of love are gone The worm, the canker, and the grief
Are mine alone what
are these deeply affecting words, but the confession of one,

in
who having
spent
all,
had found himself
want 1
fire
Or
that
again, the prodigal's misery, his sense of the barren:
ness of sin, find a yet deeper voice
The
Is lone as
my bosom some volcanic

on
its
!
preys.
isle
;
No
torch
is
lighted at
blaze,
A funeral pile
We
infer, that
are not in this early part of the parable expressly told, but from ver. 30
we
he consumed " with harlots" the living which he had gotten from his father.
This too
suits well,
when we
see here the history of the world's departure from

is
God,
in
since in the deep symbolical language of Scripture fornication

idolatry
;
the standing
image of
they are, in fact, ever spoken of as one and the same sin, considered
now
its fleshly,
now in
its spiritual,
aspect.
(Jer.
iii.
Ezek.
xvi. xvii.)
And
as much, indeed,
310
be exactly that which
THE PRODIGAL
St.
SON.
i.
Paul describes, Rom.
19-23, as the remain-
ing part of the chapter will exactly answer to the prodigal's joining himself to the citizen of the far country,
and seeking
to
fill
his belly with the
swines' husks.
when
above
the
The great famine of that heathen world was at its height Son of God came in the flesh in this consisted a part, though,
:
of course, only a part, of the fulness of time,

all other, for his
the fitness of that time,
appearing.
The
glory of the old world was fast
fading and perishing.

ed.
little,
All childlike faith In the old religions had depart-
They were
circle, but
it
creeds outworn, unable any longer to nourish, ever so
the spirit of man.
The Greek
philosophy had completed

to the
its
possi-
ble
had found no answer
doubts and questionings

this
which tormented humanity. which

all
"What
in
is
truth?"
was
the question
asked,
some, indeed,
all
mockery, some
in
despair,
some
without the desire, but
equally without the expectation, of obtaining
an answer.
When
to
in this famine, the prodigal
" began
this,
to
be in 7vant," for as yet
he had but a foretaste of his coming woe,
no doubt, was a summons
him
to
return home.
his
But as yet
his
proud heart was unsubdued, his
confiidence in
own
resources not altogether exhausted.
The
first
judgments of God do not always tame, but the stricken sinner says, like Ephraim, " The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn
stone
;
the sycamores are cut down, but

(Isai.
ix.
dars."
10;
Jer. v.
3;
Isai.
was,
we may
to
suppose, in such a spirit
himself*
a citizen of that country,"
"
change them into ce10; Amos iv. 6-10.) It as this that, "he went and joined
will
Ivii.
we
fastened," or " pinned himself

to repair his
upon " him, as
Hammond
expresses
it,
hoping
broken
for.
is
implied in the
âjv dcrwruf,
living dissolutely, of ver. 13.
'Acwros, from a and

to
aaj^w, as
one
who
thinks he need not spare,

it
that he never will
come
an end of what he has.
Clemens of Alexandria gives

not be spared,
so
a passive signification, uaoiros

(T(o^(r0at
who
it
is far
from salvation,
^n Swajuvoi
= aawarof, one who will = perditus of the Latins

:
Passow
heillos,
ohne Rettung verloren.
Cicero has latinized the word (2)e Fin.,

but
it
2, 8),
and uses
of those given to prodigal luxury and excess at the table
also includes the other
main
lusts
of the flesh
and
it
affirms a depth of moral de-
gradation, a desperate debauchery, (dctorois
aiV;^paij,
Hesychius,) which
it
may
be
questionable whether our translation has quite reached.

ling {Obss.
See Suicer,
s. v.,
and Dey-
Sac,
v. 3, p.
435.)
So Unger:
to
cKoWiiOrj
contemtim, se obtrusit
is
he thrust himself upon,
as
in
Latin, haerere or adhaerere
often used, with something of contempt, of an inferior

to
who clings
word,
some superior, through whose help he hopes

s.
advance his fortunes,
and
whom
16.
see Suicer,
v. KoXAdo/im.
But there
itself,
:
is
no contempt necessarily involved
in the
it is
not in the cleaving
but in the unworthiness of the person to
he cleaves, that the contempt
lies
in proof
compare Rom.
xii. 9,
with
Cor.
vi.
THE PRODIGAL
tunes by his help,*
SON.
is
3^1
to
And
here, no doubt,
meant
;
be
set forth to
us a
deeper depth in the sinner's downward course
fall
within a
fall,
more
the
entire and
self-conscious yielding of himself in heart and will to

St. Bernard f understands by the citizen of " That citizen I Satan himself or one of his angels.
spirits,
the service of the world.

far country,
cannot understand as other than one of the malignant
who
in that
they sin with an irremediable obstinacy, and have passed into a permanent disposition of malice and wickedness, are no longer guests and
strangers, but citizens and abiders, in the
land of sin."
Yet rather
should say that by the term " citizen "
is
tween the prodigal and the lord
to
whom
^^
brought out the distinction befor a while he addicted himself

a stranger, in that far
He
with
all his
misery was not a
citizen," but
land.
He
did not feel himself at home, nor naturalize himself there.

;
The
far
other was well to do the famine had not touched him ; herein how more miserable indeed, though he know it not, than he who " began
want.''
to be in
For there
is
hope
for the sinner so

:
long as he feels him-
self a miserable alien in the land of sin
when he has made himself "a

no longings after a
hind.
citizen
becoming hopeless, " there, when he is troubled with

his case is
lost paradise, after a better
land that he has
left
be-
we understand his joining himself to the citizen of that far country ? The sinner sells himself to the world, he entangles himself more deeply in it. Our Lord gives us a hint here of that awful mystery in the downward progress of souls, by which he who begins by
shall
But how
using the world
to
be a servant to minister
to
his pleasures, submits in
the end to a reversing of the
relationship between them, so that the

its
world uses him as
its
drudge, and sin as
slave.
He becomes
cheap
in the sight of that very world for the sake of

Its
which he has
it
forfeited all.
good wine, which
it
offered
him
at the first,
is
offers
him no more, but
now
that he has well drunk, that
which
worse.
It
was small help

no love, no
xvi.
that the
whom
sinner,
he had thrust himself. Sinful

pity.
young man found from the new master on man finds no mercy from his fellowis
its
" All thy lovers have forsaken thee," this
the
(Cf.
doom of each
Ezek.
37
soul that breaks faith with

;
heavenly bridegroom.
xxiii.
if
22-25.)
This new master cared not whether
he had him or no
to
and
he must needs engage him,

ii.
who
so crouches
him
for a
morsel of bread (1 Sam.

to the
36) he will dismiss him out of
sight,
and send him
meanest and
vilest
employment which he has
"
He
sent him into his fields tofeed swine.''
We might
easily guess, and
* Theophylact t
TTpOKOXpa; rj KOKia,
De
Divers., Serm. 8.
So
also Cajetan
Subjecit se totaliter Demoni, qui verfe
est civis regionis peccati.
312
indeed
this
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
we know, how exceedingly vile and degrading, and even accursed, employment was esteemed in the eyes of a Jew ;* so that misery And now " he would seem to have come upon him to the uttermost.
would fain have Jilled his belly with the husks -f that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him." Shall we understand that he Avas reduced
so low as to look with a longing eye upon these swine's husks, but that
himself?
a share even of these which he distributed to them, was withholden from " no man gave unto him " of these ; so the passage is gene-
rally taken.:}:
But seeing they must have been

so,
in his
power,
it
seems
preferable to understand that in his unscrupulous hunger he

to
fill
himself with these husks, and did

|1
was glad no man giving him any no"Jilled his belly
bler sustenance.
With
is
these he would fain have

all
the expression
chosen of design
just this, to dull his
gnawing pain not

(1.
;^
he could hope from them was
that he should with
them truly
* See Lightfoot's Hor. Heb., on Matt.

V. 1, p. 115.
viii.
30
and Gfrorer's Urchristenthum,
Herodotus
2, c.
47) describes the swineherds as the only persons
who were
fruit
excluded from the temples in Egypt.
t These Kepana are not the husks or pods of of the carob tree,
s.
some other
is
fruit,
but themselves
the.
((ftpartoyia.,)
of which there
a good account in Winer's Real.
WOrterbuch,
rives
v.
Johannis Brodtbaum.
This name of St
John's bread the tree dethe wilderness.

I
from the tradition that the Baptist fed upon
its fruit in
have
seen and tasted them in Calabria, where they are very abundant, and being sold at a
very low price are sometimes eaten by the poorer people, but are mainly used for the
feeding domestic animals.
They
are also
common
in
Spain, and
still
more so on
thence called
the northern coasts of Africa, and in the Levant.
They
are in shape something like

;
a bean-pod, though larger, and curved more into the form of a sickle
KcpiiTiovjOT little horn,
and the
tree
sometimes in German, Bockshornbaum.

eaten
They have
it
a dark hard outside, and a

siliquae.
dull
sweet
is
taste, hardly, I think, justifying Pliny's prtEcZuZces

;
The
;
shell or
pod alone
wine was sometimes expressed from
in
:
ancient times
Robinson mentions when steeped in water they afford a pleasant drink

is bitter
the fruit within
and
cast aside.
Maldonatus gives an accurate account of
the Kcpdrtov, and see Pole's Synopsis, (in loc.) and Rosenmuller's Alte
und Neue
8)
Morgenland,
t
v. 5, p. 198,
;
Thus Luther
Und niemand
gab
sie
ihm.
Bernard {De Convers.,
c.
Meri-
to siliquas 'esuriit, et
satiari.
non accepit, qui porcos pascere maluit, quim paternis epulis fame non amplius cogitasse veteres
delicias, sed
Calvin
Significat pras
avide
. .
vorasse siliquas: neque enim cilm porcis ipse daret hoc cibi genus, carere potuit,
Additur
ratio, quia
nemo
illi
dahat,
nam
copula in causalem particulam,
meo judicio,
resolvi debet.
II
Or
the words kqX oUeXi iH&ov avrw
maybe
new and
was none
the final touch in the picture
of his misery, and express generally that there
that
showed any
pity
upon
him.
V
vant
;
Tc))iaai
Tfjv
KotXiav.
Stella
Hominem non
1.
satiant, sed
. . .
ventrem tantilm graquo corpus non

refi-
and Ambrose (Exp. in Luc,

Augustine
;
7, c.
217): Cibus
siliquis,
citur sed impletur.
Pascebatur de
non
satiabatur.
THE PRODIGAL
satisfy his
SON.
3I3
hunger,
for the food of beasts
could not appease the cravings
of man.
but
Thus
a deepest moral
truth lies under the words,
God can satisfy the longing of an immortal soul, that as the heart was made for him, so he only can fill it. The whole description is wonderful, and for nothing more than the " He who evident relation in which his punishment stands to his sin.
would
not, as
that
none
a son, be treated liberally by his father,

foreign master,
is
compelled
to
be
the servant and bondslave of a
ruled by God,
is
compelled
to
is
serve the devil,
in his father's royal palace,
sent to the field
he who would be he who would abide among he who

not
not
hinds,
would not dwell among brethren and princes, is obliged to be the servant and companion of brutes, he who would not feed on the bread (ft angels,
petitions in his
hunger for the husks of the swine."* In

lusts
totally obscured,
fill
his feeding of swine,
what a picture have we of man " serving divers
and pleasures,"
whom the And in his
divine
is
in
the bestial merely predominant.
fruitless attempt to
his belly with the husks,
what a
picture,
again, of man seeking through the unlimited gratification of his appetites, to
appease the fierce hunger of his soul. But in vain, for

his desire as hell,
still
"he enlarges
and
is
as death, and cannot be satisfied :" since as well
to quench a fire by adding fuel to it, as to slake desire by gratifying it.f (Ezek. xvi. 28, 29.) And the further misery is that the power of sinful gratifications to stay that hunger even for the moment, the pleasure which is even hoped for from them is ever diminishing,
might one hope
still
growing
still
fainter,
and yet the goad behind, urging

fiercer,
to
seek that plea-
sure,
becoming
the sense of the
horrible nature of the

off"
bondage ever increasing, with the power of throwing

ever diminishing.
nesses which
:j:
that
bondage
All the monstrous luxuries and frantic wickedin the later
we read of
Roman
history, at that close of the
world's Pagan epoch, stand there like the last despairing effort of
to
fill
man
his
belly with the husks.
The
attempt by her emperors was
* Corn, a Lapide.
t Jerome
{Ad Dam., Ep.

non
21, c. 13): Nonpoterat,saturari quia semper voluptasfamem

:
sui habet, et transacta
satiat
other, yet brings out this interpretation also
and Bernard, though elsewhere he has affirmed the on its ethical side (De Convers., c. 14)
Sic fatui
filii
Neque enim
nim.
I
illi
parit
hanc [satietatem] copia sed contemptus.

siliquas,
Adam,
porcorum vorando
Cajetan
non
esurientes animas sed esuriem ipsam pascitis anima-
Sola nimirum hoc edulio inedia vestra nutritur, sola fames alitur cibo innaturali.
:
Quieto siquidemdominio jam possidentes Daemones hominem, invident
satietatem appetit&s,
quam tamen procurabant quosque
ilium plene sibi subjecerunt.
Compare a passage from

Par.,
V. 3, p.
the Tabula of Cebes, quoted by Mr. Greswell.
(Exp. of the
586.)
is
The
explanation which Augustine gives

;
not virtually different from

resonantes
;
this.
The-
husks he explains
Seculares doctrinje
steriles, vanitate
such as had been
21
314
carried out under
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
power,
for, in
all the most favourable circumstances of wealth and Solomon's words, " what can the man do that cometh after
the king ?"

feasts,
In
this
light
we may
behold
the incredibly
sumptuous
the golden palaces,
the
enormous shows and spectacles,
all the
pomp and
pride of
life
carried to the uttermost,*

;
and
the sins of naall
ture,
and the sins below nature
while yet from amidst

itself the
these the
experi-
voice of man's misery only
made
louder heard.
The
to
ment carried out on

signal, only
this largest scale,
only caused the failure
be more
proved the more plainly that of the food of beasts there could
the nourishment of men.
said, that the picture
not be
It
made
might be here, perhaps,
drawn
in the para-
ble, if it^be applied to
more than a very few
the deepest
sunk
in depra-
vity, is
an exaggeration both of the misery and also of the wickedness even of those who have turned their backs upon God ; that, in the most corrupted times, not all, and in more moral epochs only a few even of
these, fall so
low in wretchedness and

the
first
guilt.
This
is
true, yet all
might
thus
sin,
fall.
By
departure from God,
all this
misery, and
;
all this
are rendered possible
all
are
its
legitimate results
there
is
nothing
to
hinder them from following, except the mercy and restraining grace
of God,
who
does not suffer
sin, in all cases, to
bear
all the bitter fruit

it.
which
done "
hell
;
it
might, and which are implicitly contained in

it is
In the pre-
sent case,
suffered to bear
all its bitter fruit
we have one who has
evil with both
hands earnestly," and debased himself even unto
and the parable would be incomplete without this, it would not be a parable for all sinners, since it would fail to show, that there is no
extent of departure from God, which renders a return to
ble.
him
impossi-
Hitherto
is
we have
followed the sinner step by step in a career, which
ever carrying him further and further from his God.
Another task
beginnings of
remains
to trace the steps of his return,

full
from the
first
repentance to his
son.
reinvestment in
his
all
the rights and privileges of a
For though he has forsaken
God, he has not been forsaken by
him no not even in that far land ; for the misery which has fallen upon him there is indeed an expression of God's anger against sin, but at the same time of his love to the sinner. He hedges up his way with thorns, that he may not find his paths ; (Hos. ii. 6 ;) he makes his sin bitter to In this way God pursues his fugitives, sumhim, that he may leave it.
to himself once his

c.
own Manichaean
:
figments.
Compare Jerome {Ad Dam., Ep. 21,
13),
and H. de Sto Victore
Sordida figmenta poetarum, et diversis erroribus pollu-
ta
dogmata philosophorum.
* See, for instance, Suetonius, Caligula, c. 19, 37.
THE PRODIGAL
moning them back
stand.*
in that
SON.
33^5
only language which
now they
will under-
He
allows the world to

the difference
make
its
bondage hard
to
them, that
they
between his service, and the service of the kings of the countries, (2 Chron. xii. 8,) that those whom he is about to deliver may cry to him by reason of the bitter bondage, and in that
cry give him something that he
2 Chron. xxxiii. 11-13.)
may know
may
take hold
of.
(Deut.
iv.
29-31
Here we have one upon
whom
to
this
severe
but loving discipline
is
not wasted.f
Presently " he came
himself."%
How
full
of consolation for man,

to
" Ae came
himself
^^
so that
how deeply significant are these words, to come to one's self and to come to God,
being the true ground of our
;
are one and the same thing.
He
beino-,
when we find ourselves we find him or rather, because we have found him, we find ourselves also. It is not then the man living in union with God who is raised above the true condition of humanity, but the man not so living, who has fallen out of and fallen below that condition.
When
of my
he thus " came
to himself,
he said,
to spare,
;
How many
hired servants
father'' s
is
have bread enough and
and I perish with hunger."

nothing that so
This too
a touch of the deepest nature

to feel the to
for there is
causes the sinner
discord which he has introduced into his

all
innermost being, as
neath him.
compare himself with
things around and behis longings,
He
sees the
happy animals undisturbed with

;
unable
at rest,
to stain
themselves with his sins
he beholds
all
nature calm and
and
fulfilling in
law and
in order the purposes for
which
it
was
ordained.
Every where, peace and joy

"
he only condemned the mean-
while
To be Amid
a jarring and dissonant thing

this general
dance and minstrelsy."
He
sees also
many of
his fellow-men,
who without any very
lofty
concerning living
tions
to the
glory of God,
without
views
any very
lively affec-
towards him, do yet find their satisfaction in the discharge of their
daily duties, who, though they do his
work rather
in the spirit of ser-
vants than of sons, rather looking to their hire than out of the free im-
pulse of love, are yet not without their reward.
It is true,
they
may
not have the highest joy of his salvation, or consolations of his grace,
but,
on the other hand, they are far from the misery and destitution into
* Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. cxxxviii. 3, 4.
t Augustine
t
Divinae misericordiaE severa disciplina.

:
How
remarkable a parallel the words of Seneca {Ep. 53) supply

?
Quare
vitia
sua
nemo
confitetur
quia etiam nunc in
illis
est.
Somnium
narrare, vigilaniis est,
et vitia sua confiteri, sanitatis indicium.
See Augustine, Serm. 96,
c. 2.
316
which he has sunk.
while he
is
THE PRODIGAL
They
at
SON.
to spare:
least
have bread enough and
tormented with the fierce hunger of desires which are ever
craving, but which can never be satisfied.*
now ? They
Comparing his state with theirs, what does the prodigal determine How many, even at this point, do not determine as he does. betake them to some other citizen of that far country, who prolittle
mises them a
better fare or less contemptuous treatment.

to dress their
Or
it
may man
be they learn
food,
husks, so that they shall look like hu-
and they then deny that they are the fodder of swine.
to
Or
glorying in their shame, and wallowing in the same sty with the beasts
they feed, they proclaim that there was never intended
be any
differ-
ence between the food of men and of swine. But it is otherwise with him. " I will arise. We may picture him to ourselves as having sat long
upon the ground, revolving the extreme misery of his condition for the (Job ii. 8, 13.) earth becomes the natural throne of the utterly desolate. But now he gathers up anew his prostrate energies, as a better hope
wakens in his bosom " Why sit I here among the swine ? I will These words the Pelagians of old adarise and go to my father."
;
duced, in proof that

that he needed not
his
man
could turn
-to
God
in
his
own
strength,
:{:
a drawing from above, that the good thought
was
sin-
own
just as the (self-styled)
Unitarians of
modern
times find
in the
circumstances of the prodigal's return, a proof that the

is sufficient
ner's repentance alone
to
reconcile
him with
his
God,
that he needs not a Mediator and a sacrifice.

sufficiently
first
But these conclusions are
22
guarded against by innumerable clearest declarations, the by such as John vi. 44 ; the second by such passages as Heb. x. 19nor are we to expect that every passage in Scripture is to contain
the whole circle of Christian doctrine, but the different portions of truths
being gathered by the Church out of the different parts of Scripture, are
by her presented
completeness.
to
her children in their due proportions and entire
Returning
to that father,
he " will say unto him, Father,"
for as
* This, in the main,
is
the interpretation of these words by the Fathers.

c. 14,)
See Je-
rome, {Ad Dam., Ep. 21,

:
Ambrose, {Exp. in Luc,
1.
7, c. 220,)
and Bernard
{De Divers. Serm. 8) Quis enim peccati consuetudine obligatus, non se felicem repudatum esset ei esse tanquam unum ex his, quos in seculo tepidos videt, viventes sine crimine, minimi tamen quaerentes quae sursum sunt, sed quae super terram ? In proof that this distinction between the filial and the servile work was clearly recogtaret, si
nized
among
the Jews, see Schoettgen's Hor. Heb., v. 1, pp. 2G0, 532.

dixit
t Augustine: Surgam,
t
sederat enim.
:
But Augustine says in reply {Ep. 18S)

illi
Quam
cogitationem
bonam quando
1
haberet, nisi et ipsam

in Pa. Ixxvii. 39.
in occulto Pater misericordissimus inspirSsset
Cf.
Enarr.
THE PRODIGAL
that relation
SON.
3^7
was one which
his obedience has not constituted, so his
disobedience could not annul.
And what
is it
that gives the sinner
now
a sure ground of confidence, that returning to

pelled or cast out
?
God he
shall not be re-
The
adoption of sonship, which he received in
Christ Jesus at his baptism, and his faith that the gifts and calling of
God are on
sword the
of his baptism
For the recollection him as a menacing angel, keeping with a fiery gates of that Paradise which he has forfeited, and to which he
his part without repentance or recall.
is
not to
now
vainly desires admission again

;
but there he finds consolation and

be,
strength
he
too,
wretched and degraded though he

lips,
may yet
take that
dearest
name
of Father on his
and claim anew his admission into
the household of faith, on the ground that he

thereof,
was once made a member

in their full force,
and that
his privileges abide for
him
still
how-
ever he
long.
may have
chosen
to
remain
in guilty
ignorance of them for so
" I have sinned against heaven and hefore thee :" he recognizes
his offence to
have been committed not merely against man, but against

:
heaven, or against God
he shows his repentance

Spirit,
to
have been divinely

its
wrought, a work of the

root, as
in that
he acknowledges his sin in
a transgression of the divine law, as exceedingly sinful, being
wrought against God.

thee only have
I
Thus David, when he
exclaims, " Against thee,
sinned;" while yet his offences had been against the

evil,
second table.
For we may injure ourselves by our
we may wrong
God
;
our neighbour, but strictly speaking,

the recognition of our evil as
first
we can
sin only against
and
is
and chiefly an offence against him,

it
of the essence of
all
true repentance, and distinguishes
broadly from
many
come
other kinds of sorrow which

to give these
may
follow on evil deeds.
When we
words their higher application, the two acknowledg-
ments, " I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,'' merge into one, " I have sinned against thee, my Father in heaven." Not here alone,
but throughout
all
Scripture, this willingness to confess
is
ever noted as
a sign of a true repentance begun, even as the sinner's refusal to

ble himself in confession before God,
is
hum-
the sure note of a continued obxxxiii.
duracy.
xxviii.
(2
Sam.
ii.
xii.
13; Job
xvi.
ix.
20; xxxi. 33;
27; Prov.
13; Jer.
35;
Augustine's words, "

himself unworthy."*
He
10; Hos. xiv. 2; 1 John i. 9, 10.) In shows himself worthy, in that he confesses
*
5.
And
again
Esto accusator tuus,
et ille erit indultor

(c. 9,
tuus
cLEnarr. in Ps. xxxi.

useful remarks, in
:
Tertullian, in his treatise

this parable,
De
PaeniteiUid
10), has
many
connexion with
on the benefit of unreserved confession
Tantum
tibi, in
relevat
confessio delictorum quanti!im dissimulatio exaggerat.
Confessio enim satisfactionis
consilium
tibi
est, dissimulatio,
contumaciae.
In
quantum non peperceris
tantum
Deus, crede, parcel.
The whole
treatise breathes a far different spirit
from that
318
With
this
THE PRODIGAL
which once was
is
SON.
deep feeling of his unworthiness, he will confess that he

his
:
has justly
forfeited all
"
I am no more worthy
this
to
he
called thy son."
This
well,
and a confession such as
belongs to
the essence of all true repentance.
But the words

to
that follow,* "
Make
me as
one of thy hired servants," are these the words of returning spirit-
ual health, so that
we
should desire
meet them
in
each normal repent-
ance, or not
We
shall find that at a later period he drops them, (ver,
scholar 21,) and shall then have something more to say about them. of St. Bernard's here exclaims: " Keep, happy sinner, keep watch-
fully
and carefully
this
thy most just feeling of humility and devotion
by which thou mayest ever esteem the same of thyself in humility, of the Lord in goodness. Than it there is nothing greater in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, nothing more precious in the treasures of God, nothing more
[all]
holy
among
Keep,
sayest,
all
I
graces, nothing
say,
if
more wholesome among

thyself be kept,
sacraments.
thou
wilt
the
to
humility of that speech and feeling, with which
thou
confessest
to
thy Father, and
'
Father,
is
am
all.
no more worthy
be callit
it
ed thy son.'
does not
For humility
itself to
it
of
all
graces the chiefest, even while
know
But
be a grace at
From
it
they begin, by
it
they advance, in served."!

exhorts him
they are consummated, through
they are pre-
it is
wholly against the
spirit
of this parable,
when he
This
still
to persist in
taking the place of a servant, even after

to
his father shall

is that false
have bidden him
resume the
find so
position of a son.
humility of which
mightily extolled, in
much, and w^hich often is so monkery, but of which we find nothing in this pato go.
Tt
we
rable, nor elsewhere in the Scriptures.
It is true humility when bidwas true humility in Peter to suflfer the Lord to wash his feet, as it would have been false humility, as well as disobedience, to resist longer than he did it was true humility of the
den
to
go up higher,
prodigal,
when
is
his father
would have
it
so,
to
accept at once the place
of a son.
There
he does
j
no tarrying now
to
what he has determined
to do, at
once
being about
prove
how much
De
larger are the riches of grace,

is
in which the other above referred to,

ful,
Pudicitid,
written
and yet
is
most use-
as showing us
how
far
more
it
serious
and earnest a thing repentance was accounted

it
in the early Church, than
is
commonly now, how much more
linked itself with
outward
grandia
self-denials
:
and humiliations.
petere redintegrationem in statum
filii,
* Cajetan
;
Non audebo
in pristina
dona
sed petam dona incipientium, qui amore aeterna: mercedis serviunt Deo.
t Guerricus, in a singularly beautiful sermon in the Bened. edit, of St. Bernard,

V. 2, p.
986
Humilitas siquidem
;
omnium
virtutum est maxima, cCim tamen virlutem

in ipsil
se esse nesciat
ab
ipsa,
incipiunt, per
ipsam proficiunt,
consummantur, per
ipsam conservantur.
THE PRODIGAL
which are
arose,
laid
SON.
he had dared
to
319
hope
;
up with
to
his father, than
"
He
when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran andfell on his neck, (Gen. Job xi. 9,) and kissed hitn." The evidences of the xlvi. 29 xlv. 14
and came
but
;
;
Ms father ;
father's love are described with a touching

for the
minuteness
all
he does not wait
poor returning wanderer
till
;
he has come
the
way, but himan aspect of
self hastens forward to
meet him
he does not wear
at first
severity, only after a season to be relaxed or laid aside, but at once wel-
comes him with the

affection,
kiss,
which
is
something more than an evidence of

2 Sam. xiv. 33
being the significant, and in the East well understood, pledge
of reconciliation and peace.

ii.
(Gen. xxxiii. 4
Ps.
12.)
It is
thus the Lord draws nigh unto them that draw nigh unto
him,* (Jam.
It
iv, 8,) he sees them "while they are "yet a great way off." was he who put within them even the first weak motions toward good ; and as his grace prevented them, so also it meets them he listens to the first faint sighings of their hearts after him, for it was he that first awoke those sighings there. (Ps. x. 17.) And though they may be "yet a great way off," though there may be very much of ignorance in them still, far too slight a view of the evil of their sin, or of the holiness
;
of the
God with whom they have

first to
to deal, yet
he meets them, notwithlove.
standing, with the evidences of his
mercy and reconciled
Neither
makes he them
at a distance
go through a dreary appi'enticeship of servile fear

at
from him, but
once embraces them in the arms of his
love,
giving them at this
first
moment
strong
consolations,
perhaps
stronger and more abounding than afterwards,
when they
are settled in
this
their Christian course, they will oftentimes receive.
And
them
he does,
because such they need
at this
moment,
to assure
that notwith-
standing their moral loathsomeness and defilement and misery, they are
accepted in Christ Jesus, to convince them of that which

for the sinner to believe,
it
is
so hard
which
it
is
indeed the great work of faith to
realize, that
God has
put
away
their sin,
and
is
pacified toward them.
But the returning

sin
is
son,
though thus graciously received, though his
not mentioned against
him
at all,
yet not the less
makes
the con-
fession
which he had determined

first
is
in his heart,
this
when
;
the purpose of re-
turning was
forgive,
it is
conceived.
And
was
fitting
for
though God
fail to
may
man
;
not therefore to forget.
Nor should we
note that
after,
and not before, the kiss of reconciliation, that

for the
this confession
finds place
more the sinner knows and
tastes of the love of
God,
* Thus there is an Eastern proverb, If man draws near to God an inch, God will draw near to him an ell or as Von Hammer (Fundg. d. Orients, v. 4, p. 91) gives it Wer sich mir eine Spanne weit naht, dem eile ich eine Elle lang entgegen,
;
Und wer mir gehend
entgegen komtt,
dem
eile ich in
Spriingen zu.
320
the
THE PRODIGAL SON.

more he grieves ever
to
have sinned against that
love.
It is
under
the genial rays of this kindly love, that the heart, which
was before
bound up as by a deadly frost, begins to thaw and to melt and loosen, and the waters of repentance to flow freely forth. The knowledge of God's love in Christ is the cruse of salt which alone can turn the bitter
and barren-making streams of remorse
ance.
into the healing waters of repent-
And
thus the truest and best repentance follows, and does not
;
precede, the sense of forgiveness

thing of the whole
love,
is
and thus too will repentance be a

should
life
long, for every
as a
it.
new
reason
why we
against
there
is
It is
a mistake to affirm
new insight into that forgiving mourn that we ever sinned that men, those I mean in whom
a real spiritual work going forward, will lay aside their repent-
ance, so soon as they are convinced of the forgiveness of their sins, and
that therefore,
since
repentance, deep, earnest, long-continued, selfis
mortifying repentance,
a good thing, as indeed
it is,
the longer
men
can be kept
this
in
suspense concerning their forgiveness the better, as in
way
a deeper foundation of repentance will be laid.

relations in
This
is
surely
which repentance and forgiveness stand and their true relation is rather opened to us in such to each other passages as Ezek. xxxvi. 31, where the Lord says, " Then,'" (and for what that then means, see ver. 24-30 then, after I have cleansed you,
a
;
:
wrong view of the
after I
have given you a new heart,
after
have heaped
all
my
rich-
upon you, then under the sense of these) "shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall
est blessings
loathe yourselves in your

inations."
own sight for your iniquities and your abomCompare Ezek. xvi. 60-63, where the Lord declares he has
Judah
for
established his covenant with
the very purpose " that thou
mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame, lohen I am pacified toward thee for all that
tliou
.
hast done."
is
The
)ôunger son, while he has the clearest evidence
that his father
pacified toward
him, does not the less confess his
(shame.
not say,
He does not indeed say all that he had once intended, "Make me as one of thy hired servants:" for this was
which would
he does
the one
troubled element of his repentance, this purpose of shrinking back from

his father's love, and from the free grace
all
:
restore to
and
in his
dropping of these words,
in his willingness to be blest
him by
his father to the uttermost, if

tiful
such
is
his father's pleasure, there is beau-
evidence that the grace which he has already received he has not
received in vain.
short,
Bengel thinks
it
possible that his father cut
him
and so took these words out of his mouth, but has also suggested
the truer explanation.*

*
Bengel
Vel quod ex obvii patris comitate accensa
filialis
(iJucia
omnem
ser-
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
321
a place and a
And now the father declared plainly in act, that he meant to give him name in his house once more for he " said to his servants,
;
Bring forth the and shoes on his

but of the free
nity,
;*
best robe
feet,""
all,
and put
all
it
on him, and put a ring on his hand
these
being the ornaments, not of the slave,
therefore, speaking of restoration to his former dig-
and his
lost privileges.
Or
if
we cannot suppose
up of a slave
to
the
Roman
cus-
toms which accompanied the
lifting
a freeman's rank, to
have been familiarly known
in Palestine, or to be here alluded to, yet the
giving of the robe and ring were ever accounted, in the East,
highest tokens of favour and honour; (Gen.
so that, in fact, these words
chiefest favours in store for
xli.
among
vi.
the
would
still
testify
15;) of highest blessings and

justly confessed that he
42;
Mace.
him who had most

of these.
had
forfeited his
claim
to the least
Few
able,
is
interpreters,
even among those who commonly are most opposed
to the giving a spiritual
meaning
to the
minuter circumstances of a par;
have been able
to resist the
temptation of doing so here
and there
cir-
a pretty general agreement concerning the
manner
in
which these
cumstances shall be explained. There is a question, however, whether " the first robe " is to be understood as the first in worth, as our translation has
it,
"fAe
best robe,"
the most excellent that
was
laid
up
in the
house,
or "
the former
robe,'' that
which he wore when of old he walknot important, though our trans-
ed a son in his father's house, and which has been kept for him, and was
now
robe
to
be restoi*ed.
The
difference
is
lation is clearly the right;

is
nor whether
signified the imputation to
we say that by the giving of this him of the righteousness of Christ,:}: or
vilem sensum absorberet, vel quod patris comitas sermonem

gustine {Quasi. Evang.,
esse cupiebat
;
1.
2, qu. 33)
filii abrumperet. So AuCiim enim panem non haberet, vel mercenarius
quod post osculum patris generosissimfe jam dedignatur.

c.
* Thus Tertullian {De Resur. Cam.,
57) speaking of the manumitted slave
Vestis albcB nitore, et aurei annuli honore, et patroni nomine ac tribu
mensaque
honoratur.
Grotius
AuktvXiov apud
Romanos
ingenuitatis,
(Jac.
ii.
apud Orientes populos
dignitatis eximia;
signum, aut etiam opulentiae.
2.)
He might
;
have added
signifi-
Gen.
t
xli.
42.
Cf.
Elsner,
in the Biblioth. Brern., v. 3, p.

s. v.
906
and
for the
cance of the ring, the Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Antt.,
Rings, p. 824.
The Vulgate
:
Stolam primam.
a.p')(a.iav,
Tertullian
rather,
Vestem pristinam, priorem.

aTo\r]v rnv KaXfiv.
The;
ojjhylact
T^^
oroXî' r^v
TijtioiTaTriv.
but
;
Stolam illam praestantissimam
as
Eutliymius: rhv
Cf.
Gen.
often
xxvii. 15.
Trpcorot is
LXX. Thv
There
der
need no quotations
to
prove
how
The
used in this sense of the chiefest, the

Passov^t,
s. v.,
most excellent
(see 1
Chron. xxvii. 33
Ezek. xxvii. 22, LXX.)

vestis talaris, the long
vornehmste, angesehenste.
oroXij is the
and wide upper

paraper-
garment of the higher

t
classes.
(Mark
xxii. 38.)
Tertullian
Indumentum
Spiritiis
Sancti.
:
Jerome
Stolam quae in
alia
bola,
indumentum
dicitur nuptiale.
Augustine
Stola prima est dignitas
quam
322
THE PRODIGAL
If
SON.
the restoration of sanctity to his soul.

his baptismal
forth the robe
ciliation
;
we
see in
it
his reintegration in
privileges, then both will be
implied.
They who
bring
have been generally interpreted as the ministers of reconif
and
we may imagine them
first
to
have removed from

4, will
him, as they would naturally have done, the tattered garments, the poor
swineherd's rags which were hanging about him, Zech.
suggest
there,
to
iii.
then
us an interesting parallel.
to the
Those who
stood before the

did for
Lord
would answer
removing
servants here,
and what they
Joshua
there,
his filthy
garments from him, and clothing him with a

fair
change of raiment, and setting a
mitre on his head, the same would
the servants do here for the son, with the difference only that instead of the mitre, the appropriate adornment there of the high priest, the ring
and the shoes are here mentioned

case, no doubt, the
and the symbolic act has

;
in
each
ex-
pressly declares
thee."
" Behold,
same
signification
I
what
that
is,
the
Lord there
to pass
have caused thine iniquity
from
I think,
ting
it
These words, brought to bear on the passage before us, make it, more probable that by this bringing out of the best robe, and putupon him, is especially signified that act of God, which, considernegative side,
is
ed on
its
a release from condemnation, a causing the
sinner's iniquity to pass from him,

to
on
its
positive side, is an imputation
him of the merits and righteousness of Christ.

This explanation,
for other reasons also, is preferable, since
we have
the gift or restoration of the Spirit indicated in the ring with which the
returning wanderer
is
also adorned.
It
is
well known, and despite Pli-
ny's* denial
is
unquestionable, that in the East, as with us, the ring

iii.
was
i.
also often a seal,f (Esth.
10,
12; Jer.
is
xxii. 24,)
i.
which naturally
13, 14
;
brings here to our minds such passages as Ephes.

22, in which a sealing by God's Spirit
2 Cor.
spoken
of,
whereby they
that
have
it
are assured, as by an earnest, of a larger inheritance one

to
day
coming
them, and which witnesses with their spirits that they are the
iv.
sons of God. (Gal.
Rom.
viii.
23
2 Cor.
v. 5.)
The
ring, too,
didit
Adam
and
in
another place, spes immortalitatis in baptismo.
Theophylact
To
cvivfi.a Trii dipOaptriai.
Guemcus
Sanctlficationem
Spiritfts,
qua baptizatus induitur
et pcenitens reinduitur.
H. N.,
1.
33,
c. 6.
Speaking of the seal-ring, he says

contenta
;
Non
signat Oriens
q^jit
iEgyptus etiam nunc,

false
t
litteris
solis.
The
later discoveries
1.
have shown
this as
concerning Egypt as the East
see moreover Herod.,
2, c. 38.
Clem. Alex. (Potter's
ed., p.
1017)
Tinftavrpov fiaaiXiKov Koi a<ppayi6a
Qdav^
and
presently after,
interesting in
a-i!oa(^payiofta i6^r,i.
many
respects
The fragment whence these words are taken, is and among others in this, that the author, whether
that he
Clement or another, affirms of the prodigal

gifts
had not merely wasted the natural

I'l^noiici/iov
of God, but especially abused rdv tov PazTiaftaTOi
kuXuv.
THE PRODIGAL
may
ever be the pledge of betrothal
:
SON.
will betroth thee unto
323
:*
"And
me
for
yea,
will betroth thee unto
me
in righteousness,
I
and in judgment,
and
in loving-kindness,
and in mercies, and
will
even betroth thee unto

20. f)
I
me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord." (Hos. ii. 19, The shoes also are given him, to which answers the promise, "
strengthen them in the Lord, and they shall walk up and
will
down
in his
name." (Zech.
ence,:}:
x. 12.)
The
penitent shall be equipped for holy obedi.
having his "

vi.
feet
shod with the preparation of the Gospel of
peace." (Ephes.
xxxiii. 25.)
it," fice
it
15.)
it is
No
strength shall be wanting to him. (Deut.
"Bring hither the failed calf^ and kill would create a confusion of images, again to go back to the sacriof Christ, which was implicitly contained in the first image, that of
added,
is
When
the giving of the robe, and which, moreover,
not a consequence of the

is
sinner's return, as the killing of the fatted calf

prodigal's, but the
the consequence of the

possible.
|1
ground which renders that return

IF
Nor
should
here see, (with Tertullian
and Clement of Alexandria,) special

to the festal
allusion to the Eucharist, but
more generally
joy and rejoic-
ing which
is in
heaven
at the sinner's return,
and no
less in the
Church
(ver.
on earth, and
in his
own
heart also.**
As
*
in the
preceding parables the shepherd

1.
summons his friends,

ejus,
Ambrose (De Panit.,
2, c. 3):
Det annulum in manu
quod
est fidei
pignus, et Sancti Spiritfts signaculum. t
The whole
chapter affords deeply interesting parallels

;
ver. 5 (the latter part)
an-
swering to ver. 11, 12 here

t
ver.
C-13 there
to
13-19 here
and
ver.
14-23
to
20-24.
Guerricus: Calceamenta, quibus ad calcanda serpentuni venena munitur, vel ad

Grotius, quoting Ephes.
vi.
evangelizandum praeparatur.
15, adds,
Nimirum
see
poeniten-
tibus in gratiam receptis etiam hoc
Deus concedit,
li.
ut apti sint aliis aut voce aut certfe
exemplo docendis, and'quotes well Ps.

(Potter's ed., p. 1018) for
13, in this view.
And
Clemens Alex.
on these
latter being
much
that
is
beautiful
and something that
is fanciful
shoes,
though the
vKoSfinara
were probably rather sandals than shoes, the
in very rare use in the East.
The word is used interchangably with cavSiXta, by the LXX., though there is a distinction. (See Tittmann's Synonyms, and ihe Diet, of Gr. and Eom. Antt., s. v. Sandalium, p. 839.) Much luxury was often displayed among
the wealthy in this article of dress, (see Judith xvi. 9
that
to
;
Ezek.
xvi.
10
Cant.
vii. 1,)
;
so
we can
easily understand
why
they should have been especially mentioned
not
say that slaves usually went discalceati.

Tdi/
n6a')(ôv
Tdv (rirevuv.
for
Cf. Judg. vi. 25.
(LXX.)
Tertullian
Vitulum praeopi-
mum,
II
that set
by
some
special occasion of festal rejoicing.
In the Geneva version,
" that fatted calf"

Augustine evades
this difficulty
:
Tunc enim
cuique [Christus] occiditur ciim
credit occisum.
IT
De Pudic,
c. 9.
1.
** Arndt {De Vera Christ.,
2, c. 8)
Hoc conviviuminnuit gaudium angelorum,

Ixiii.
sive vivificantem, latificantem, et

Ixvi. 13, depingit.
coronantem misericordiam quam Ps.
Jes.
324
6,)
THE PRODIGAL
woman
that
it
SON.
and the
her female neighbours, (ver. 9,) so here the house-
holder his servants, to be sharers in his joy.
For
this is the
very nature
of true joy
runs over, that
it
desires to impart itself: and if this
be true of the joy on earth,

ven.*
how much more of the yet holier And summoning them to rejoice, he declares to them
to share.
joy in heathe ground
of the joy in which they are invited
In an earthly household,
part of the household
we might To
naturally conclude some to have

at the
made
now, who had not made part

them, therefore,
it it
time of the young man's departure.

to
was needful
declare that this wanderer, this
beggar as
seemed, was no other than a son of the house, one
should henceforth be by them treated and regarded as such.

ther solemnly reinstates him, before them
all, in
who The fapast,
the honours of a son.
" This
my
son," he says
is alive
and
again'^
"was
dead, and
then,
comparing the present with the
''dead,'' for the state of sin is ever con-
sidered in Scripture as a state of death
Ephes.
ii.
1)
" he was
(1
John
iii.
14;
Tim.
ii.
v.
6;
lost,
and
is found,"
compare
1 Pet.
25
"
Ye
were
as sheep going astray, but are
now
returned unto the shepherd and
bishop of your souls;" and while thus the lost

alive, " they began to he merry."
was found, and
the dead
Here
our Lord
this parable, like the
at ver. 11
two preceding, might have ended. But saying " two sons," had promised something more;
part within
itself,
and complete as
contrast which
is this first
yet
is it
also to form part
of another and more complex whole, and

is
to
derive
new beauty from
the
thus brought out between the large heart of God and
the narrow grudging heart of the elder brother,
man.
For the purposes of
this contrast
is
who
as yet has been
named
to us,
and no more,
now
brought upon the scene.
He, while the house is ringing with the festal rejoicing, returns from " the field " where, no doubt, he had been, as
usual, laboriously occupied
;
so
much
is
implied in the words; and

is
it
is
not without good reason that this intimation
are informed that while the

strength,
For thus we other had been wasting time and means and
given us.
his
whole
portion of goods,
in
idle
and
sinful
pleasures
abroad, he had been engaged at home, on his father's ground, in pursuits
of useful industry.
This
is
not a justification, but yet
is
a tacit explaentitled to
nation, of the complaints
which he presently thinks himself

to
make.
It
As he
" drew nigh

to the
the house, he
heard music and dancing "

they would
would be alien
manners and
feelings of the East, to suppose the

:
guests themselves to have been engaged in these diversions
Origen {Horn. 23 in Lev.) on the words " 3Iy feasts," which there occurs, asks
Habet ergo Deus

sal us.
dies festossuos?
Habet.
Est enim ei
magna
festivitas
humana
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
325
but be listeners aijd spectators, the singers and dancers being hired for such occasions. Surprised at these unaccustomed sounds, " he called one
of
the servants and asked what these things meant J^ Let us note here with what delicate touches the Uiigenial character of the man is indicated
already.
father
He
does not go in
feast,
he does not take
for
granted that
when
his
makes a
there
is
matter worthy of making merry about.

is
But, as if already determined to mislike what

fers to
going forward, he pre-
remain without, and

it,
to
learn from a servant the occasion of the
joy, or rather, as he puts
" what these things meant,^' demanding an

it.
explanation, as if they required
And
then the tidings that his father
had received
his heart,
his brother " safe
father's joy, his brother's safety,
and soundj"* with the thought of his instead of stirring up any gladness in
move him rather to displeasure ; " he was angry, ^^ and in place of rushing to that brother's arms, " would not go in."
Nor even when
his father so far bore with
him
as to
come out and
entreat him, would he lay aside his displeasure, but loudly complained
the bounty which was beof the unfairness with which he was treated " Lo ! these many years do I
:
stowed upon his brother's misconduct

serve thee, neither transgressed
thou never gavest
me a
kid, that
at any time thy commandment, and yet I might make merry with my friends. "-\
And
then he invidiously compares the father's conduct to his brother;

son,'"
" This thy
he says
not,
my brother,
it
" which hath devoured thy
ing," again invidiously, for in a sense
was his own " with harlots," very probably, yet only a presumption upon his part " as soon as he toas
liv-
who had now at length resumed his own place, but speaks of him as a stranger upon the first moment of his arrival, and after years, not of duty, but disobedience
come," he says not, ivas returned,^ as of one
" thou hast killed for him," not a kid merely, but the choicest calf in the
stall.
What would he have

How nice
is
said, if
he had known
all,
and seen him

The
the observance of
all
the lesser proprieties of the narration.
father, in the midst of all his natural affection, is yet full of the
moral significance of
his son's return
that
he has come back another person from what he was

far land
;
when he
is
went, or while he tarried in that

receiving
he sees into the deep of his joy, that he
him now indeed a
son, once dead but
now
alive,
once
lost to
him and
to
God,
but
now
found alike by both.
But the servant confines himself
to the
more external
features of the case, to the fact, that after all he has

ship, his father has yet received
gone through of excess and hard-
him "
safe
and sound."
Even
if
he could enter deeper
into the matter, yet with a suitable discretion he confines himself to that plainly under his
which
falls
and every one's eye.

21) finding an emphasis in these last words, " with
tibi
+ Jerome
(Ad Dam., Ep.

:
my
friends," asks of him
Potest esse
aliqua jucunditas nisi patre tecum celebrante

14, 4.
:
convivium
X
Cf.
Bernard, In Cant., Serm.
This
is
one of Bengel's fine and delicate notices
Venit, dicit, ut de alieno lo-
quens : non, rediit.
326
THE PRODIGAL
all his
SON.
other adornments,
arrayed in the best robe, and with
when
this
which alone he mentions, as

It is
it is
all
?
which he has learned from
his infor-
mant, so moves his indignation

too joyful
at
an occasion
the tone
for the father to take the just exception

this
which he might
and temper of
it,
remonstrance.
There
shall not be, if he can help
cloud upon any brow, and instead of
answering with aught of severity, he expostulates with the malcontent, would have him see the unreasonableness of his complaint nor does he fail to warn him that he is now, in fact, falling into the very sin of his
brother,
when he
said, "
Give me
the portion
of goods thatfalleth
to
me."
He
is
feeling as though he did not truly possess
what he possessed with
his father,
as though he
his father's stock, before he could call
must separate and divide something off from it truly his own. The father's
answer
the
is
a warning against this evil, which lay at the root of the elder
it had spoken out more plainly in the younger's, same which spoke out most plainly of all in the words of the wicked husbandmen, " This is the heir let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours." " S071, thou art ever with me, andall that I have is thine ;" and then he makes him see the unloving spirit out of which his discon" It was meet that we should make merry and he glad ; for tent proceeded
brother's speech, though
this thy
brother," (not
merely "
?ny son," as thou hast ungraciously put

is
it, but " thy brother," kinned to thee, and to whom therefore kindness due) he " was dead, and is alive again ;* was lost, and is found."
What
fact,
success
shall
the
father's
expostulations met,
to
we
are not told.

will,
Whether we
assume them
have been successful or not
in
be mainly determined by the interpretation which

parable.
we
give to this
concluding portion of the
Those who see

difficulties
in the
younger
brother the Gentile, and therefore in the elder the Jew,f certainly find
this portion of
it
encumbered with fewer

V. 1, p.
than those
who deny
* ScHOETTGEN, Hor. Heb.

t
field,
877.
:
Thus Augustine (QucBSt. Evang., 1. 2, qu. 33) The elder brother was in the returning he heard music and that is, the Jew was occupied labore servilis operis
:
dancing,
scil. spiritu
plenos vocibus consonis Evangelium praedicare.

these festivals in the Church, in
;
He
inquires of
:
the prophets,
tell
what mean
is
which he bears no part and
they
of the calling of the Gentiles
but he
is
displeased,
will not enter.
A
may
time however
coming, so Augustine continues, after the fulness of the Gentiles has
come
the
in,
when
;
the father will
come
out and entreat him, to the end that
all
Israel
be saved
for
by
this
coming out of
the father, he understands the manifest vocation of

in error
:
Jews
in the last times.
Here he must needs be
for
however we
may
accept the elder brother as a portrait of the Jews as they were in the days of Christ's
earthly
itself in
life,
them,
conversion,
we cannot imagine his contumacy and self-righteousness manifesting when the Lord hereafter shall be successfully dealing with them for their and when " they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and mourn for
yet
is in
him
as one that
bitterness for his first-bom."
THE PRODIGAL
that
its
SON.
and
327
their relaI
tions to
primary purpose can be to set one another and to God. As

has been denied,
forth their history,
in the interpretation
which
have
pri-
here sought to establish, the correctness of such application, as the
mary
at least,
it
will be needful to look elsewhere for a
solution of the difficulties,
the parable of the Labourers in

selves into this single one,
which are indeed the same which beset us in They resolve themthe Vineyard.
Is Iheir righteousness,
whom
the elder bro-
ther
his
represents, real or not
If real,
how can
this
be reconciled with
brother ?*
contumacy towards his father, and his unloving spirit towards his For does the true believer accuse God of unrighteousness
in his dealings with
men
of
does he grudge, and not rather rejoice,

it
when
one who has departed more widely,
may
be, than himself, is
brought
home
which
most
to the
fold
God
How
again does the supposition that his
righteousness
is
was
real,
agree with the aim of this part of the parable,

for the
directed against the Pharisees, whose righteousness,
part,
it
was
is
not such, but feigned and hypocritical
But on the other

in
side, if
not real,
how
is
this
reconcilable with the course of the

his
story, according to
which the elder brother had remained ever
father's house, or with his uncontradicted assertion
concerning his
own
continued obedience, or with the meed of approbation and assurances of

favour which he receives from his father's
lips ?
Each determination
that certainly with
is
of the question
is
embarrassed with
difficulties
and
own
considerable, though perhaps not with the greatest, which

Jerome,")"
come
to
by
by Theophylact, and by others, namely, that by the elder son
the Pharisees are signified,

critical
;
whose righteousness was feigned and hypocontinued obedience
"
that
his
assertions concerning his
are suffered to pass uncontradicted, because, even granting them to be

true, the case
would not be altered

it
the father
now
arguing with him

;
e con-
cesso
;:}:
Be
to
obedience
allowing your hand have been without interruption, your works always to have
so, that is
not the subject
in
been well-pleasing
in
my
sight, yet
ought you in love
to rejoice that at this
your brother has returned
to
us once more, and to be well-pleased

is
exuberant joy and gladness with which he

* Jerome's reply to
is
welcomed home."
referred to,
Damasus {Ep.
21),
which has been more than once

in his time as
justi tarn
very remarkable, as showing

felt
how
:
the difficulties which press upon this part of the
parable, were
quite as strongly in the
Church
question which
rit
Damasus had asked
Nunquid personae
now. It was just this immanis invidia pote7!o)\v9pi\\nTov
coaptari?
And
Theophylact
calls the question
about the elder son, to
^rJTrjua.
t Christ, he says, paints the Pharisees,
non quales
erant, sed quales esse debuerant.
Theophylact
t
calls
them,
KaO' vTroOeatu JiVaioi.

quffi
Jerome:
Non
confirmavit vera esse
dixerat
filius,
sed irascentem
alia, rati
one compescuit.
328
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
But there seems a possible middle course, which shall escape the embarrassments which undoubtedly perplex this as well as the opposite
scheme of
is
interpretation
that
we
see in him, or in those
whom
he rep-
resents, a low, but not altogether false form of legal righteousness.
one
who has been kept by
the law from gross offences

spirit, in
he has been
So,
He
occupied, though in a servile *
the
:
works of that law.
no doubt, had been

but also
many
of the Pharisees
many
of them sincerely,
many of them hypocrites though in much blindness of heart,

x. 1, 2,)
following after righteousness,
(Rom.
a righteousness indeed of
a low
sort,j' in
the strivings after which, while those were mostly exter-
any deep self-acquaintance, any such knowown hearts as should render them mild and merciful to others, any such insight into the breadth of that law which they professed to keep, as should thoroughly abase them before God.
nal, they did not attain to
ledge of the plague of their
Such may have been some of the murmurers here persons not utterly to be rejected, nor the good in them to be utterly denied, but who had need rather to be shown what was faulty, deficient, narrow, and loveless
in their religion
spirit,
;
to
be invited to renounce their servile for a
filial
and
to enter into the
nobler liberties of that Church and kingdom

earth.
which Christ was establishing upon
And
in this sense
we must
then understand the father's invitation to the elder son to come in. Hitherto he had been labouring " in thejield,"^ but now he is invited to a
festival.
They whose work
for
taskwork of the law, are invited

the freedom of the Spirit.
God had hitherto been servile, the hard now to enter into the joy of the Lord,
kingdom
to
This part of the parable will then be as

the legalist, as the
to the gross sinner,
much
a preaching of the Gospel of the

it
earlier part of
had been
as love to the one spoke
there, so love to the other here.
The
elder son's
reply to the father's invitation, (ver.
29, 30,) and
especially those words. " yet thou never gavest

that he understands not the nature of that
me a kid,''' show too plainly kingdom to which he is invited.
He
is
looking for certain definite rewards for his obedience, to the get-
* I cannot,
however, press the word 6ov\nw

it is,
(ver.
29) into service here, as Bengel

is
does,
whose note upon
Confessio
servitutls.
There
no confession of a servile
;
mind, no abnegation of a state of filial adoption, at Acts xx. 19 1 Thess. i. 9, nor in many passages where ôvXrfco is used, any more than when Paul calls himself a ser-
vant
(JoCXof)
of Jesus Christ.
t Salmeron: Intelligamus verosjustos, sed mediocres.

X
Ambrose
Terrenis operibus occupatus, ignorans quae sunt Spiritfls Dei.
But
Augustine (Enarr. inPs. cxxxviii.) rather more favourably: Significat sanctos in lege
facientcs opera et praecepta legis.
Augustine
Ad perfruitonem
potioris atque jocundioris exultationis invitat.
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
329
In-
ting something yVom God, instead of possessing all things in God.*
stead of feeling
it
his true reward, that he

this
had been ever with his father,
he rather would plead
as establishing his claim to
some other
re-
ward. |
have
is
In the father's reply, " Son, thou art ever with me, and all thai
thine "
I
is
we must
be careful
that
we
place the emphasis on the
right word, for without this

not,
we
shall entirely miss the
meaning.
It
"Son
but
thou art ever with
me,"
as
though the contrast was drawn

his fa-
between him and the younger son who had so long not been with
ther
;
we
should read rather, " Son, thou art ever with me," setting
"
the emphasis on the last words.
What
all,
need
to talk
of other friends
thou art ever with a better than them

thou have expected a kid,
first
with myself.
is thine."
Why
shouldest
the
when
all that
I have
To make
things,"
is
clause of the sentence an honourable recognition of his past obediall
ence, or the second a promise that he "shall inherit

entire missinsf and marring: of the whole.
an
not
Rather
in the first
;
words
"
lies
the keenest, though at the

I
same time
is
the most loving, rebuke
Am
;
to
thee
;
more than
"
all
besides ?" in
the second the most earnest

it
warning
can
I
What
is
mine
thine, if only thou wilt so regard
what
do for thee,
if
thy fellowship in
my
:
things fails to
make
thee feel
rich ?" and
how wonderfully do
these last words declare to us the true-
nature of the rewards of the kingdom
" All that
elder son no doubt had thought that what
I have is thine ;" thewas given to his brother was

less, be-
taken from him
but in the free kingdom of love one has not

;
cause another has more God's grace

is
but
all is
possessed by each.
The
fountain of
not as a
little
scanty spring in the desert, round which
thirsty travellers
need
to strive
and struggle, muddying the waters with
their feet, pushing one another
away,
lest those
waters be drawn dry by
others before they
come
to
partake of them themselves, but a mighty

all
inexhaustible river, on the banks of which
may
stand, and of
which
none need grudge
lest if others
drink largely and freely, there will not
enough remain
is thine
if
for themselves.
To each
dren the Lord says, as the father did

I'^j^
to his elder son,
of his true servants and chil" All that I have
any then
is
is
straitened and counts that he has not enough,
he
his
is
straitened, as
the elder son here, not in God, but in himself, in

heart.
own narrow and grudging

There
is
abundant reason why nothing should be said of the issue of
Augustine:
t
Non
dicit pater,
Omnia
possides, sed,
:
Omnia mea
tua sunt.
He
should have
felt,
in Bernard's
words
Ipse retributor, ipse retributio nostra,
nC aliud jam quJim ipsum expectamus ab

t
ipso.
Augustine, on these words, says habentur omnia, ut sint
Sic
enim
perfectis et purgatis ac
jam immor:
tailibus fiiiis
cupiditas nihil sine angustili, ita
omnium singula, et omnia singulorum nihil cum augustia caritas tenet.
ut eninii
22
330
THE PRODIGAL
SON.
the father's expostulations with his discontented son.
That could not
yet be
told,
even as
it
was yet uncertain whether
the scribes and Phar-
isees might not also be
won
to
repentance, which indeed, though of an-
other kind and for other sins, they needed quite as
much
as the publi-
cans and harlots.

sullenly refused
for his
The Lord
to the
not distinctly declaring that the elder son
last to
enter
in,
or
tliat
he was finally excluded
contumacy, intimated
to these, that as yet the
kingdom of God
and
was
not closed against
them
that they too, as well as the publicans

to leave
and sinners, were invited and summoned

into the glorious liberties of the
their low, poor,

iv.
formal service, " the elements of the world," (Gal.
3,)
and
to enter
kingdom of Christ
to be
present at that
spiritual festival wherein
he should manifest his glory, changing the
weak and watery

That,
it is
elements of that old dispensation into the generous and

(John
ii.
;gladdening wine of the new.

true, of
1-11.)
which we have here only an uncertain intimation,

in,
the refusing, and on these grounds, to go
was
fearfully fulfilled
and
take
on
the largest scale,
when
the
Jews
in the apostolic
times refused
to
part in the great festival of reconciliation, with which the Gentile world's
;all
kingdom was being celebrated. How may we read xiii. 45 xiv. 19 ; xvii. 5, 13 xviii. He would not go in, because his 12, a commentary on this statement, If he had ^brother was received so freely with music and with dancing.
incoming
into the
through the Acts, as especially
teen submitted first to a painful apprenticeship of the law, if he too had (Acts ^been sent to work in the field, it might have been another thing. he should be thus made free of the kingdom of God, But that :xv. 1.) he brouf^ht into the festival at once this was more than they could bear.
Jûmbers stayed openly and sullenly without. Others, as the Ebioniles, only pretended to go in, or went in under a mistaken supposition that
it
should be as
in
their
their
error, presently
withdrew themselves again.*
narrow hearts they desired, and discovering At the same time
we
Gentiles must not forget that the whole matter will be reversed at
the end of the present dispensation, and that
we
shall be in
danger then
of playing the part of the elder brother, and shall do so, if we grudge at the largeness of the grace bestowed upon the Jew, who is now the
prodigal feeding
upon husks
far
away from
his Father's house.
* Augustine {Serin. Inedd.)
Irascitur frater
major
Stomachati sunt Judsei
venire gentes de tanto compendio, nullis impositis oneribus legis,

cisionis carnalis, in peccato accipere
non dolore circum-
baptismum salutarem.
is
t Cajetan's view of the elder brother and his anger
ver^^ interesting, and

Irat slightly,
am
not aware that any interpreter, except indeed Jerome, and he

it
has brought
forward.
He
speaks
first
of the joy and consolation which th(Sênitent sinner often
-finds at his first return
unto
God
these are set forth by the musiji
and dancing,
for
THE UNJUST STEWARD.
33^
PARABLE XXV.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

Luke
xvi. 1-9.
derrate the difficulties,
This parable, whereof no one, who has seriously considered it, can undifficulties which multiply rather than disapwhich Cajetan found so pear the closer the parable is searched into,
great that he gave up the matter in despair, affirming a solution impossible,
has been
the subject of manifold, and those the most opposite,

I
interpretations.
cannot doubt however that
so to speak, " overrun their
game," and
that
I
many interpreters have, we have here a parable of

so say, to use the world
Christian prudence, Christ exhorting us,,if
may
and the world's goods
in a
manner
against
itself,
and
for
God.
shall
him
all
the glories of the Gospel have
the freshness of novelty, and, for a while,

for
an
overpowering gladness, which they cannot have
him who has ever continued

:
in the
ways of
the Lord.
The
joy of the latter has indeed been infinitely greater than this
it
one burst of gladness, but
has been spread over a far larger space of time
so
that
seeing the other's exultation, he

feeling of discontent,
may
be tempted for a
moment
is,
to ask, with a transient

?
why
to
him
also is not given this burst of exulting joy

?
why
for
him
the fatted calf has been never slain
But
:
the
answer
because he has been ever

his.
with his father, because his father's possessions are, and have been always,
joy therefore
but the
to
His
given
more solid, deep, though smooth and silent,

is
soberer and
not the suddenly swelling mountain cataract,

river
and what
is
given to the other,
is
him
just because
he
is
a beginner.
And
Cajetan concludes his very interesting ex:
planation of the whole parable with these words
Adverte
hie,
prudens
lector,
Deum
fir-
quandoque noviter poenitentes
afficere
magna, consolatione interni gaudii, donee
mentur
in vi&,
Dei
haec
autem non sunt majoris
perfectionis fructus, sed deliciae
quaedam seu
blanditiae ccelestis Patris, quae perfectioribus multis negantur.
This view
was a very favourite one with the Mystics, who observed ho\v in the festivals the first and eighth days, that is, their beginnings and their glorious consummations, were commonly the days of chieftest gladness, and they compare these joys to sugared dainties,
with which those who are as
Christ's school.
it
were children
in spiritual things, are
first
allured into
Volmar (De
Spirit. Perfect.) uses a like
image
Haec itaque devo-
tionis gratia infantibus dari solet, ut
ad bona opera per
eam
incitentur,
quemadmodum
venaticis canibus in principio solet gustus ferarum captarum praeberi, ut ad venandura
ed
fortiis insistant.
Before
leaving this parable, I would just take notice of a very

itself,
interesting allegory, called indeed
but incorrectly, a parable, founded upon this

St.
present one, which appears
among
the
works of
Bernard, but
is
by his Benedictine
editors (v. 1, p. 1251) attributed to
some other author.
332
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

all
not attempt to give a complete account of

it
the interpretations to
which
has been submitted
since that would be an endless task,* but as I

shall
go through the parable
note what parts of
it
those
its
interpreters,
who have
the
the best right to be heard, have considered
key-words, and
to
meanings which they have made the whole parable
render up,
noting at the same time what seem the

in those explanations
weak and
unsatisfactory points
which
shall reject.
The
Lord, having finished the parable of the Prodigal Son, did not
break off the conversation, but,
it is
probable afler a short pause, which
he allowed that his Avords might sink down into the hearts of his hearers,
^-resumed, addressing
sayers and opposers,
gladly and willingly,
told.
his
words however not any more
to
the gain-
not to the Pharisees, but to those

to
who heard him
" his disciples," as
we
are (ver. 1) expressly
By
Luke
" his disciples,^

vi.
we must understand
not exclusively the twelve

in
(see
13) nor yet on the other
hand the multitude,
a certain
degree
well afTected to the doctrine and person of Christ, yet at the
same time hanging loosely upon him, following him from place to place but with minds not as yet made up to join themselves without reserve rather the whole body of those who to him as to their master and lord had attached themselves to be taught of him, whom his word had found
:
out in the deep of their spirits, and
who having
left
the world's service,
had decidedly passed over into the ranks of

" disciples^' so understood, the parable
his people.
To
them, to the
for
meant, since
it is
was addressed, and scarcely probable, as some would have it,
them
that the
Lord was speaking to them, but at the Pharisees. These, last it is true, were a/so hearers of the Lord's words, (ver. 14,) but the very mention of them as such excludes them from being the persons to whom it was The Lord may have intended, it would seem primarily addressed.
most likely did intend,
yet
it
some of
that they
his shafts to glance ofTupon them,
while
was
it
not at
them
were originally aimed.
We
shall pre-
sently see that in

offered,
all
relation to, at least, one of the expositions
which are
above
will be
important to have fixed in our minds for
whom
was meant. " There was a certain rich man, which had a steward," not a landbailifff merely, but a ruler over all his goods, such as was Eliezer in
the parable
Schreiter, in a
work
entirely devoted to this parable, (Explic. Farah. de

list
improlv
CEcon. Descriptio; Lips. 1803,) gives an appalling

brief analysis
of explanations offered, and a
and judgment of them
all
but
have not been able to derive
much
as-
sistance from the book.
And
iherefcre not villicns,
which the Vulgate has, nor yet dispensator, which

first
a cashier.
The
6,)
inaccuracy of the
expression
is
noted and corrected by Jerome
{Ep. 121, qu.
who
at the
same time
gives a good account of
what were the stew-
THE UNJUST STEWARD.
333
the house of Abraham, (Gen. xxiv. 2-12,) and Joseph in the house of (Gen. xxxix. 4.) It was one of the main duties of such a Potiphar.
steward
to dispense their portions

xii.
of food
to the different
members of the
household, (Luke
42,) to
give the servants or slaves their portion in

find
due season, a duty which we sometimes

mistress of an house,
undertaken by the diligent

needing that
(Prov. xxxi. 15.)
" Aiid the same was accused
'"^ unto him that he had wasted his goods.
This of the
lord's
the
ill
conduct of his steward should come
to his ears
through a third
:
party, belongs to the earthly setting forth of the truth

parallel,
yet
it
finds its
Gen.
xviii. 30, 31.
There
is
not the slightest ground for sup-
posing, as
some have done,

It lies
that the* steward
was
falsely
and calum-
same is used Dan. iii. 8, where it is said that certain Chaldfeans came near and accused the Jews ; yet it was not falsely that they accused them of having refused to wornor had Daniel been calumniously accused of ship the golden image having knelt and prayed, and given thanks before his God ; malignantly
niously accused.
not in the word, for the
;
it
might
be,
and in each case was, and so

support then
is to
much
lies in the
word, but not
falsely.f
No
be found in this woixi for their view,
who would
ard.:};
in a greater or less
Indeed his
own words
measure clear the character of the stew(ver. 3) seem an implicit acknowledg-
ard's duties
Villjcus propria
villas
gubernator
est,
unde nomen accepit.
OIkovoôs
autem
too
tarn pecuniae qua,m fruguin, et
omnium
quae
dominus
possidet, dispensator.
See
Ad
Eustoch., Ep. 22,

;
c.
35, for the duties of the oeeonomus, in the Egyptian
mo-
nasteries
and
for
much
information on the subject, Mr. Greswell's Exp. of the Par.,

v. 2, p.
V. 4, p. 3,
and Becker's Ckarikles,
37-
Procurator would be the best transla-
tion.
(See Becker's GaZiM5,v.

is
1, p. 109.)
In the pictures lately discovered in the

all
Egyptian tombs, the steward

act note of the
seen often with
his writing materials, taking an ex;
amount of the harvest, before it is stored in the granaries (Hengstenberg's Backer Moses, und jEgypten, p. 23 ;) which is something to the point here, as the same person would naturally have the oversight of the outgoings as well. * There does not seem any reason why we should have shared the error of the
Vulgate, quasi dissipdsset,

original, that
it is
when
it
is
plain from
the
present (^f
6ta<jKnpTTiô}i')
of the
no past, but an actual and present, unfaithfulness
to his trust
with
which he
is
charged.
t In both places the
same word
{Stj/3,i\\oj) is
used in the SeptuagiiU, by which
Luke
here expresses the accusation against the steward.

it,
Cf
right
all,
2 Mace.
iii.
11.
He was
as the Vulgate has

t
diffamatus, but not in our English use of the word, defamed.
As
for instance
Schleiermacher,
if
who
says: "
The
view of
has
this parable is to
be sure very
much
perverted,
the steward
who,
after
not committed any
breacli of trust (?)
on his
own
account, nor
will not
was charged with
it, is
notwithstanding to
oiKov6iios
be termed oUof.
r. doiKias,
and we and
make up
:
our minds to leave
with-
out an epithet, and to refer this dSiKiai to

ner's Grnmmatik,
trary a
p.
ivrivnatv
[against this construction see

treats his servant in
Wi-
185]
if
the master
who
so very arbi-
way, and discharges him, without inquiry, upon a secret information, and who
334
ment of
his guilt
:
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

he proposes not
to
make any
defence, and his after

difficulties, will
it
conduct, his scheme for helping himself out of his
allow
no conclusion, but that the accusation, though
might have
been
brought against him by some enemy and from malicious motives, yet
was one with most

them without due
for himself
entire foundation in the truth.
The
accusation was,
that he wasted or scattered his master's goods,

fidelity,
that he administered
turning them
to private ends,
last,
laying them out
and not
for his lord.
This This
when
the charges against
his steward
is
it
were brought
this
to his ears,
" called him and said unlo

is
Mm, How
that
I hear
of
thee
expostulation of indignant surprise,

far,
"o/" thee* whom
not examination, but rather the

I
had trusted so
to
whom
had committed so
ardship, for thou
may est
Give an account of thy stew; be no longer steward."

in the
much
They who,
fruits
like
Anslem, see
of repentance, lay
this
much
stress
pai'able the rise and growth and upon these words, " How is it that
is for
I hear
of thee
This remonstrance
speaking
to the sinner,
and convincing him of
sin,
them the voice of God bringing home to his

it
;
conscience that he has had a stewardship and has been abusing

the threat, thou mayest he no longer steward,^''
is in
and
like
manner a bring-
ing
home
to
him, by sickness or by some other means, that he will soon be

his earthly stewardship,
removed from
and have
to
render an account.
He
feels that
he cannot answer God one thing in a thousand, and that

is
when once he
will be
thus removed, there will be no help for him
he cannot
;
dig, for the night will
have come in which no man can work

for that
and he
ashamed
to
beg
mercy, which he knows will then be
refused.
Consistently with this view, they see in the lowering of the
besides discovers no higher measure by which he judges of
human
actions than pru-
dence,
if this
character
is
all
along considered a blameless man."

for his
But
it is
very
diffi-
cult to see
what Schleiermacher would gain
scheme by the altered construction.
"
The Lord
praised the steward for his injustice,"
comes pretty nearly
to
the
same
i.
thing as," The

as
Lord praised
the unjust
steward;" and with such analogous phrases

xviii. 6,) liKpoariii ini\riaôv!li
fiafibiva Tiii a&iKiai, Kpirti; t^j dStKui;,
(Luke
(Jam.
25),
is
he will scarcely persuade that the ordinary and natural collocation of the words
to
be abandoned, even to help out his marvellous interpretation of the parable, according to
which the
rich householder
;
is
the
it
Romans,
the steward the publicans,
and the debtors

them, and
the Jewish people
the lesson
contains being, If the publicans show themselves mild
and indulgent towards

they
their nation, the
Romans
will in their hearts praise
who have now
lost all
favour with their countrymen, will by them be favourably

it
received.
But in what sense,
may
be asked, could a coming into favour with the

this last is
Jewish people be termed a reception into everlasting habitations?

too strong a phrase for anything which they could
selves favourably disposed towards them.
* Wetstein
:
somewhat
do
for those
who showed them-
Mirantis
de
te
quem procuratorem
constitui.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

bills,
335
not a further and crowning act of unrighteousness on his part, but

act of his righteousness, the dealing of one
to
the
first
who now
to
seeks,
while he has time,
do good with that which
is
committed
him, to
lay out the things in his power not with merely selfish aims, but in acts
of charity and kindness,
to scatter
for
heap up
in
heaven and not on earth.
God rather than for himself, to The dishonesty of the act they
it
get over, either by giving this lowering of the bills altogether a mystical
meaning, and so refusing
to
contemplate
in the letter at all, or in
way
of which
we
shall presently
have
to take notice.
He
is still
called,
they say, the " unjust'" steward, (ver. 8,) not because he remains such,
but because of his former unrighteousness
;
he bears that
name
for the
encouragement of penitents. It is as much as to say. Though he had been this unrighteous ungodly man beforetime, he yet obtained now
praise and
commendation from
his lord.
He
retained the
after
title,
as did
Matthew
that of
"the publican," (Matt.
x. 3,)
even
he had become
the
an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ,*

that
in perpetual
remembrance of
grace of God which had found him in that mean employment, and out of
had raised him
to so great a dignity
iii.
as in like
Zenas
the lawyer, (Tit.
13
;)
Rahab
is
the harlot,
(Heb,
manner we have xi. 31 ;) Simon
the leper, (Matt. xxvi. 6
;)
not that such they were now, but that such
they once had been.
But there
nothing in the man's counsels with
himself that marks the least change of mind, the slightest repentance,
no recognition of
selfish anxiety
guilt,
no acknowledgment of a trust abused, no desire

to
expressed henceforward
be found faithful, but only an utterance of

lot,
concerning his future

;
of fear lest poverty and distress
may come upon him

being
still
and the explanation, however ingenious, of his

is
characterized (ver. 8) as the " wn;w*i" steward,
quite unsat-
isfactory.
But now follow

utter inability
his counsels with himself,

to find
and
first
his expression of
life
any where
:
help: his past softness of
has unfit-
ted
him
for
labour
his pride forbids his begging.
Yet
this helplessness
endures not long.
He knows what
to
he will do
and has rapidly con-
ceived a plan whereby
make
provision against that time of need and
So the author of a sermon in the Bened.
edit,
of St. Bernard,
(v. 2,
p. 714,)'
who
12,)
gives this as the
sum
of the parable
Multa laude
est dignus, qui reHcto errore
pristinae conversationis, diviti
Deo
satislaciens redit ad gratiam:
and Anselm,
(//bwi.
who, however, sees
in the
steward only an unfaithful ruler in the Church, not
very
he
whom a dispensation has been committed, which he has been abusing;. Laudari a Domino meruit; et nos ergo laudemus eum, . nee eum in aliquo, priusquam correctus est, audeamus reprehendere, ut htec putemus in his quae
man
to
says:
crga debitores egit domino fraudem
fecisse,
sed potius credamus
eum
in
his lucra
Domini sui prudenti
consilio quaesisse, et ejus voluntatem implcsse.
336
destitution
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

which
at
is
now
rate
so near at hand.
;
If his determination
is
not
honest,
it is
any
promptly taken
and
this
is
part,
no doubt, of
the skill for which he gets credit,
that he
was
not brought to a nonplus,
but quickly found a
what
to do, that
way of escape from his distresses. ivhen I am put out of the stewardship *
one from
trust
to
they
"J amresolved may receive

among 22
the
me
into their houses," as
whom
find
they have received kindnesses,
and who, therefore,

them,
may
hospitable entertainment
a miserable prospect, as the son

him and
of Sirach declares, (xxix.
28,) yet belter than utter destitution and want.

collusion between
his lord's debtors.
Hereupon follows
They owed,
it
seems, to
the householder, at least the two whose cases are instanced, and
who
are
evidently brought forward as representatives of

three servants are
many
more,
^just
as but
(Lukexix. 13,) to whom pounds had been intrusted, the one an hundred measures of oil, and the other an hundred measures of wheat. It is not likely that they were tenants
named out of the
ten,
of his,
who
paid their rents in kind, which rents were

;
ard lowered, and the leases tampered with

not to point that way.
the
now by the stewname " debtor " seems
Again, the enormous amount f of the oil and wheat, both of them costly articles, (see Prov. xxi. 17,) which is due, makes it equally unlikely that these " debtors " were poorer neighbours
or dependents,
whom
the rich householder had supplied with
means of
living in the shape of food,
not
however as a gift, but as a

to
loan, taking
from them an acknowledgment, and meaning
be repaid,
when they
man,
to
had
ability.
Rather we might assume the foregoing transactions, by

into the relation of debtors to the rich
this kind,
which these men came

have been of
that he,
having large possessions, and therefore
large incomings from the fruits of the earth, had sold, through his steward, a portion of
factors,
such upon credit
to these debtors,
merchants, or other
They had
to
and they had not as yet made their payments.

bills,
given,
however, their
him.
or notes of hand, acknowledging the
amount which
stand in-
they had received, in which amount they owned themselves

debted
to
These, which had remained

to
he now returns
them,
in the steward's
keeping,
bill":}:
" Take thy bill," or,

viUicatione
"Take
back thy
* In the Vulgate
Amotus
ii
but Tertullian in far happier Latin
ab
actu summotus.
t
The word
fails
"
meaxure"
in
our translation, wliidi
quantity,
oil," (the
to
intimate
this.
Better Tyndal and Cranmer,

It is
may be a small who give
or
it,
a large
" tuns of
Rhemish, pipes) and " quarters of wheat."

in
exactly this quantity, one
hundred cors of wheat, which,

is
one of the apocryphal gospels, where every thing

is
on a gigantic
scale, as
with tlwsc wljose only notion of greatness

single grain of
p.
size,
we
are
hatl
told
that the child Jesus received in return for a
wheat which he
by the
planted in the ground.

X
r(J(i/</<a
(Thilo's Cod. Apocryph.,

(Col.
11.
302.)
Vlll-
xe.ipoyfM'lio]/
14)
ypanjinrtlov >^pcovi 6fiXoynri(di',.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.
337
they confess themselves
bidding them to alter them, or substitute or others in their room, in which to have received much smaller amounts of oil
and wheat than was actually the case, and consequently to be so much To one debtor he reless in the rich man's debt than they truly were.
mits half, to another the
fifth
of his debt
is
by these different proportions
teaching
us,
say many, that charity
not to be a blind profuseness, ex-
hibited without
respect of the needs, greater or smaller, of those
who
*
are
its
objects, but ever to be exercised with consideration
and discretion
to others.
that the
hand
is to
be opened
bills,
to
some more widely than
Vitringa f finds the key of the parable, and proposes the following interpretation, which deserves to be recorded, The rich man is if for nothing else, yet for its exceeding ingenuity.
In this lowering of the
God, the steward the Pharisees, or rather all the ecclesiastical leaders of the people, to whom was committed the administration of the kingdom But they were accused by of God, who were stewards of its mysteries.
the prophets, (see for instance Ezek. xxxiv. 2
;
Mai.
ii.
8,)
and lastly by
Christ himself, that they neglected their stewardship, used the
power
self-
committed
to
them, not for the glory of God, but
for
purposes of
honour
that they scattered his goods.
They
feel the justice
of this ac-
cusation, and that they are not in the grace of their Lord, and only out-
wardly belong
to his
kingdom.
Therefore they now seek
to
make them-
selves friends of others, of the debtors of their Lord, of sinful

this
men, and
they do, acting as though they
still
possessed authority in the things
of his kingdom.
is,
And
the
way by which
they seek
to
make
these friends
by lowering
the standard
of righteousness and obedience, inventing
convenient glosses for the evading of the strictness of God's law, allowing men to say, " It is a gift," (Matt. xv. 5,) suffering them to put away their wives on any slight excuse, (Luke xvi. 18,) and by various devices
making slack
the law of
God
(Matt, xxiii.
16,) thus obtaining
for
themselves favour and an interest with men, and so enabling themselves, although God's grace was withdrawn from them, still to keep their hold on men, and to retain their advantages, their honours, and their peculiar
privileges.
This interpretation has one attraction, that
it
gives a distinct
meaning to the lowering of the bills," Write fifty,'' " Write fourscore ;" The moral will then be no other than is which very few others do. commonly and rightly drawn from the parable Be prudent as they, as
these children of the present world, but provide for yourselves not temgate happily translated, cautio.
See the Did. of Gr. and Rom. Antt.,
s.
v. Interest
of money,
*
p.
524.
the Great,
Thus Gregory
d.
who
quotes from Gen.
iv.
Si recte offeras, et
non
recte dividas, peccasti.
t Erklar.
Parah., p. 921, seq.
This seems
to
have been the standing interpre-
tation of the Cocceian school, for see Deyling's Obss.
Sac,
v. 5, p.
335.
338
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

:
porary friends, but everlasting habitations

earthly objects
things
;
they use heavenly things for
but do you reverse the case, and show
how
earthly
may
be used for heavenly.*

this
Connected with
in a
for
view
is
that of the writer of an elaborate article
He conceives the parable was meant modern German Review. f only that he makes it to contain counsel the scribes and Pharisees
them,
for
the
unjust stewai'd
it
is
set
forth
for
them
to
copy
while
Vitringa
made
to
to contain
a condemnation
in
its
of them.
the stewards
and
;
administrators
a dispensation
They were which was now

away
coming
set up,
a close
their
and when in
room the kingdom of Christ was
then
much abused
stewardship would be taken
from them.
that in the
The
little
writer finds in the parable an exhortation to them,*
while that should intervene between the announce-
ment and actual execution of this purpose of God's, they should cultivate that spirit which alone would give them an entrance " into everlasting habitations,^^ into the kingdom not to be moved, the spirit, that is, which
they so
much
lacked, of mildness and love and meekness toward
all
men,
their fellow sinners.
This
spirit
and the works which
it
would prompt,
ij:
he affirms, are justly

*
set forth
under the image of the remission of debts
With
the interpretation of these words as being a lowering the standard of obeis
dience very nearly agrees the use of the parable which
made
in the Liber S. Joannis

in Thilo's
Apocryphus, a religious book of the Albigenses, republished

cryphus,
debtors,"
p.
Codex Apo-
884, seq.
How much
with the very question which the steward here puts to the owest thou unto my lord ?" and with the bidding " Write fifty"
It is
is
" Write fourscore," that Satan
introduced as tempting and seducing the inferior
angels (blandiendo angelos invisibilis Patris).
The
very ingenious exposition of the

is
parable by Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, a cotemporary of St. Ambrose,
in the
same
line.
He
says, Villicus iniquitatis Diabolus intelligendus est, qui in seculo re?] ejus villici
lictus est, ut
pliciter
immunitatem [immanitatem
fugientes ad pietatem Dei sup-
curramus.
Hie dissipat facultates Domini, quando in nos grassatur, qui portio
Domini sumus.
Hie excogitat quomodo valeat debitores Domini,
h. e., peccatis in-
volutos non solum aperto praelio persequi, sed sub obtentu fallacis benevolentiae, blandd,
fraude decipere, quo magis

ipso in aeternum judicandi
mittit,
.
eum
.
in
domos suas
falsa,
benignitate seducti recipiant,
cum
. . .
Hie debita conservorum suorum reiaxare

minaciter simul et providenter.
se falso pro-
dum
vel in
fide
vel in opere peccantibus

villici
variam pollicetur indulgentiam.
Laudat [Salvator] astutiam

ci!im
Minaciter quidem,
:
vocabulo iniquitatis pessimam Diaboli prudentiam condemnat
providenter au-
tem,
dum
contra argumentorum ejus consilia discipulos audientes confirraat, ut omni
cautela atque prudentia tain callido atque prudenti inimico repugnent.
t Zyro, in the
Theol. Stud. u. Krit. for 1831, p. 776.

to
He had
been however,
though he seems not

Par.,
p.
know
it,
long ago anticipated by Salmeron (Serm. in Evang.
231)
Quia
.
enini Scribae et Pharisaei
ut deficerent
hortatur
Dominus
ut dent
cum lege et sacerdotio in promptu erant, operam.ne auster6 cum peccatoribus prothough
it
cedant,
t
ut ita sibi praeparent amicos, qui eos in Evangelium recipiant.

2, p. 162, seq.) brings forward as
all
Weisse {Evang. Gesch.,v.
were a
great discovery of his own, and
that
was wanted
for the easy explanation of the
THE UNJUST STEWARD.
339 God
that primarily
to-
and
ward
tempts
those, debts
is
due
to another, since
it is
against
every sin
all
committed.
Such a
spirit as this,
of love and gentleness

guilt,
men, flows out of the recognition of our own

excuse himself.
which
all
reat-
cognition the writer finds in the absence on the steward's part of

to justify or to these
The same temper which would

fit
prompt them
works of love and grace, would
them
also for
an
entrance into the everlasting habitations, the coming kingdom,, which, unlike that dispensation
now ready
to
But how
parable ?*
shall this interpretation be reconciled with the
vanish away, should endure forever. words, " Be
said also unto his disciples,'^

it
with which the Evangelist introduced the
will then plainly be addressed not to
them, but
to the scribes
and Pharisees.
But
to return
with
these
new
acts of unrighteousness this child of
the present world filled up the short interval between his threatened and
his actual destitution of his office.
It
is
not said that
he attempted
to
was making, or that he whether it was that he trusted called his lord's debtors together secretly that they would keep counsel, being held together by a common interest
conceal the fraudulent arrangement which he
and by the bands of a common

the accounts, fearing neither
iniquity,
or whether he thus falsified
God nor man, careless whether the transaction were blown abroad or not, as being now a desperate man, who had no character to lose, and who was determined to brave the matter, confident that there would be no redress for his lord, when the written documents
testified against
him.
This
latter
seems
to
me
the most probable
supposition
that the thing
was done openly and

is
in the face
of day,f and
parable, this view, that the lowering of the bills

acts of bounty
the
image here wnder which, not

the spiritual act of the forthis into
and love with the temporal mammon, but

is
giveness of sins,
represented.
He
owns, however, that he cannot bring
agreement with
of unrighteousness" and the words in Italics he therefore includes in brackets, being " convinced that
ver. to yourselves friends of the
9," Make
!" is
mammon
Jesus never spoke them

*
c.
Not very unlike this, 13), only that he makes

and not
;
the explanation given by Tertullian {Be
Fuga
in
PerseCr
the exhortation to be addressed to the entire Jewish peo:
Facite autem vobis amicos de quomodo intelligendum sit parabola praemissa doceat, ad populum Judaicum dicta, qui commissam sibi rationem Domini cilm male administrasset, deberet de mammonae hominibus, quod nos eramus, amicos sibi potius prospicere quam inimicos, et relevare nos a debitis peccatorum, quibus Deo detinebamur, si nobis de dominici
ple,
to the spiritual chiefs of the nation alone
mammona,
ratione conferrent, ut ciim ccepisset ab hujus deficere gratia,, ad nostram fidem refugi-
eMs
reciperentur in tabernacula aeterna.
t His words to the debtors, " Sit

characteristic of a fear of discovery
;
down
to
quickly and write,"
may
appear to some
man who
wished
huddle over the matter as
fast as possibie, for

;
so
Bengel explains them,
Taxi(os, rap^m, furtim
and Maldo-
natus
Quod
dicit citd,
hominis mihi fraudulenti et malfe agentis esse videtur, timentis.
340
that the
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

arrangement was such
as,
from some cause or other, being once

to stand.
completed, could not be broken, but must be permitted

it
Were
meant
to
have been a secret transaction, the
lord's discovery of the
fraud would hardly have been passed over,
and the steward would

it
scarcely have obtained for a contrivance which proved so clumsy that
was presently seen through and

all
detected, even the limited praise

his
which
he does obtain as a skilful adapter of
means
it
to his
ends.
Least of
would he haveôbtained such
praise, if
had depended merely on the
forbearance of his master, in the case of discovery being made, which

the event proved
must have been regarded as probable from the beginon, even
ning, whether the arrangement should be allowed to stand good or not.
Such forbearance could not have been counted

words
he did not allow the steward
to
though the
* of the lord should lead us, in the present instance, to
reap the
full
benefits
assume that which he hoped

not, that
from his dishonest scheming.
But whether the arrangement was a clandestine one or

a fraudulent one seems beyond a doubt
:
it
was
and
is
such, on the face of
it, it is,
any attempt
hopeless.f
ne
is
to
It
mitigate, or explain
away
the dishonesty of the act,
may
be said, indeed, and has sometimes been
so, that this
in scelere
deprehendalur, ne quis
dum
adulterantur
litterse,
superveniat.
feels that
But there
another
fair
explanation, that they are the words of a
man who
what
is
to
be done, must be done at once
that to-day he has
means
to help
himself, while to-
morrow they
will
have passed from his hands.
the debtors, one by one, apart from and

ciently indicated, by the av
Si,
The transaction was evidently not with unknown to each other, as is slightly but suffiwhich the steward begins
his ad-
("
And
thou,") with
dress to the second.
* Jensen, however,
. Krit., 1829,
p.
who
has a very interesting essay on this parable, {Theol. Stud.
699), sees a spiritual significance in the householder's forbearing to
break the arrangement
gards the dealing of the steward,
he says: " That which does not blame

and
it
is
related of the master,
it,
nor stand
to his rights,
how he seems
reto
me
to be the setting forth of the grace of sinful
God, through which, instead of entering into

the good in them, which, according to strict
judgment with
men, he rather rewards

of his device
right, could not
even attain to secure them from punishment.

fruit
For he leaves the stewsaid above,

it
ard to enjoy the
since, after
to
what has been
can-
not be conveniently supposed that he had no right

matter,
t
it
demand
strict
reckoning in the
only remains to consider this conduct as a voluntary forbearance on his part."

absurd, but that
One might say
has been done with so
much
ability
by Schulz in
to
an instructive
is
little treatise,
(Ub.
d.
Parabelvon Vcrwalter, Breslau, 1821,) as

oiKopdjios,
redeem
from such a charge.
The
ancient
he says, was one with far greater liberty
of action, more uncontrolled freedom in the administration of the things committed to
him, than any

the
to
whom we
moment
should in modern times apply the

is
title
of steward
Wd
con-
sum
of his statement seems this, (though the comparison of

iiis
not
his,) that his

it
duct at this latest
stewardship, however merely selfish
might be, yet
was no more dishonest, ^laii it would be dishonest on the part of the minister of a kingdom, who had hitherto been oppressing the people under him, and administering
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

dishonesty of the transaction
is
34J
not of the essence of the parable, but an

to set
inconvenience arising from the inadequacy of earthly relationships

forth divine.
They must
fail
somewhere, and
this
is
the
weak
side of
it
the earthly relation between a steward and his lord, which renders
not altogether a perfect type of the relation existing between
God,
that in the latter case, to use
Hammond's words,
" the
men and man hath

endless
liberty to use the wealth put into his hands, so as

for his master's but also) for his
may
be most (not only

to his
own advantage, namely,

it
reward
in heaven,
which, though
were an
injustice
and falseness in a
and command of
servant here on earth,

not his own, yet
it is
who
is
altogether to consider his master's profit,
duty, and that which
by the
will
God we
the rich
are obliged to do, in the execution of that steward's office which
man
holds under
;
God
and
it
is
the only thing
commended
to
us
in this parable
which
is
so far
from denominating him that makes

to
this
advantage of the treasure committed

steward, in the application, that
latter part of the parable,
him an unjust
or unrighteous
denominates
\\\m faithful (niatoq) in the

it
and him only false (udixog) that doth

not,
not."
In worldly things there

identity of interests
is
and there never can
be,
such absolute
between a master and a servant, that a servant deal-
ing wholly with reference to his
own
interests,
would
at the
same time
all
forward in the best manner his

a heavenly Lord, that
things with his
for for
;
lord's.
But our
interests as servants of
is,
our true interests, absolutely coincide in
so that
when we
administer the things committed to us
him, then
we
lay them out also for ourselves, and

for
when
for ourselves,
our lasting and eternal gain, then also
him.
"And
wisely.^'
the lord
commended the unjust steivard, because he had done Every one who is able to judge of the construction of the ori-
once acknowledge that it is the lord of the steward, he who has twice before in the parable been called by this name, (ver. 3, 5,) that
ginal, will at
is
here rneant, and not our Lord,
who
does not begin to speak directly in
his
own person
till
ver. 9
the
intermediate verse being the point of
transition from the narration to the direct exhortation.*
The
attempt to
so,
substitute
"cunningly"
for the "wisely'' of
our translation, and

to
by
limiting and lowering the
commendation given,
evade the moral
diffi-
culty of the passage, cannot altogether be borne out by an appeal to the
the affairs of the
kingdom
for his
own
interests
to
and pleasures, yet now, when about
to
be removed from his place of authority,

their hearts,
seek to win the people's love and a place in
by remitting or lowering the heavy dues and taxes with which before he had
burdened them.
* So Augustine (Enarr. in Ps.
pare
liii.
2)
Luke
xii.
42
xiv. 23,
where in
like
Cor ejus manner 5
laudavit dominus ejus.

Kvpio;,
Com-
without further qualifica-
tion, is
used of an earthly loid.
342
original.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

"Wisely
''
may
not be the happiest
word
that could
have been
implied in
selected,
and certainly
is not,
since
wisdom
if
is
never in Scripture disconis
nected from moral goodness.*

^^
But
more commendation
wisely" than the original warrants, in "cunningly" there would be less;

is
" prudently "

in
clearly the
it
word
that should
have been chosen, and so

all
Wiclif 's translation
was, though the word has disappeared from
But concerning the praise itself, which cannot be explained away as though it were mere admiration of the man's cunning, it is true that none but a mere malignant, such as the apostate
our subsequent versions.
Julian, would-
make here
a charge against the morality of the Scripture,
or pretend, as he does, to believe that Jesus meant to
commend an
model
unfor
righteous action, and propose

imitation.
it,
in its unrighteousness, as a
Yet
at the
same time few

at first sight
it
will
deny
that the
praise has something
perplexing in
it
though rather from
the liability of the passage to abuse,

it is
unguarded as
ver. 11,
its
appears, though
not really so, (for see
which should never be disconnected from the parable,) than from
not being capable of a fair explanation.

:
The
it
it is
explanation
is
clearly
this
the man's deed has two sides on which

the side of
its
may
be contemplated,
one,
dishonesty, upon which

its
most blameworthy,
if
it
the other, the side of
prudence,
its
foresight,
upon which,
be not
particularly praiseworthy, yet it-supplies a sufficient anaôôn to a Christian virtue,
found in most followers of Christ,

tion
to these,
one which should be abundantly, but only weakly ground of an exhorta make and rebuke any of the deeds of bold bad men have
is
too
to
it
the
just as
side, that is the side
of their boldness and decision, upon which they
rebuke the doings of the weak and vacillating good.

of the Devil
There are martyrs

be proposed to them
dWfji
who put
to
to
shame the
saints of
God, and running as they do
with more alacrity

* In Plato's words,
oil
death than these to

in-itrrii/îi )û>piiôjiivr}
life,"f"
may
Ilaira
SiKaioaivrig Kal
riyj
dperfji,
navovpyia
ao<pia (paivcrai.
Rather
(ppovijjiwi is
a middle term, not bringing out prominently the

evil, of the
moral characteristics, either good or

nizing in
it
action to which
it is
applied, but recogin the
a skilful adaptation of the
means
to the
end
affirming nothing
it
way
of moral approbation or disapprobation either of

to be
means
find
or end, but leaving their
worth
determined by other considerations.

opposed
vii.
If the ^pdi-i/joj
were the cunning, we should

actually opposed to the jiwpos.
find
it
to the uKo/foj, the simple,

;
but
we do
(Matt.
24, 26
xxv. 2.)
ffo</jta
The
(/.pdi/Tjiris
stands in the
same
relation to the aivcati
(understanding) as the
t Bernard
:
does to the vovs (reason).

.
.
Martyres Diaboli
is
alacriCis
currunt ad
mortem quiim nos ad

to tears.
vitam.
There
in
a striking story of one of the Egyptian eremites which illustrates the
matter
hand.
Chancing
to see
a dancing
at
girl,
he was
moved
Being asked
the reason, he replied,
That she should be
such pains to please
men
in her sinful vo-
cation
and we
in our holy calling use so little diligence to please
God.
Compare an
incident in the Life of Pelagia in Lipomanni
Ada
Sanctorum, y.
5, p. 226.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

for their imitation.
343
We
may
disentangle a bad man's energy from bis
ambition, so far at least as to contemplate them apart from one another,
and
may
:
then praise the one and
condemn
the other.
Even
so our
Lord
in the present case disentangles the steward's dishonesty from his pru-
dence
the one of course can only have his earnest rebuke,
the other
may
be usefully extolled for the purpose of provoking his people by em-
ulation to a like prudence,
which yet should be
at
once an holy prudence,
and a prudence employed about things of

importance.*
far
higher and more lasting
The next
meaning
;
verse fully bears out and confirms this view of the Lord's
" For the children of this icorld are in their generation tciser
Of course there is the same objeclion to the than the children of light." " wiser" here that there was to the ''wisely" of the verse preceding.
As we saw that ought to have been " prudently," so this ought to have been " more prudent." f " The children of this world " are evidently
the earthly-minded, the
and who look not beyond

born of the
spirit
men of the earth, those whose portion is here, who have adopted the world's maxims, being The phrase occurs but of this world, and not of God.
once else in Scripture, and then in our Evangelist, (xx, 34) though the term " children of light" is common also to St. John (xii. 36,) and St.
Paul (1 Thess. v. 5 ; Ephes. v. 8). There is good reason why the faithful should be here called by that rather than by any other name, for so
their doings,
which are deeds of
light,
done in truth and in sincerity,

light,
even as they are themselves sons of the day and of the
are con-
trasted with the deeds of darkness, the hidden things of dishonesty,
which
are wrought by the children of this world, and of which this child of the
present world,
who plays
the chief part in the parable before us, has just
given a notable specimen.
The
declaration itself has been differently understood, according as
the words that are wanting to complete the sentence have been differently
supplied.
Some complete
in those
it
thus
" The
children of this world are
wiser in their generation" namely, in worldly things, " than the children
of
light
" are
same worldly
things, that
is.
;
Earthly
men
;
are
more prudent than
spiritual
men
;
in earthly things
those earthly things
are their element, their world
they are more
at
home
in
them
they
give more thought, they bestow more labour, on these matters, and there*Clarius: Laudat ingenium, damnat factum.
Augustine's explanation (Qucest.
istae
Erang.,
1.
2, c. 34) is less satisfactory

si
contrario dicuntur
similitudines, ut in-
telligamus
laudari potuit
ille
h domino qui fraudem faciebat, quanto amplius placent

Cf.
Domino Deo,
Ep. 121, qu.
qui
6.
secundum
ejus praeceptum ilia opera faciunt.
Jerome Ad Algas.,
+ It would seem that exactly thus one of the old Latin versions had astutiores.
(Au-
gustine, Enarr. in Ps.
liii.
2.)
344
fore succeed in
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

them
better
:
though
dark.*
it
be true that this
is
only as owls
see better than eagles
in the
But
it is
hard
to see
how
a gen-
eral statement of this kind bears on the parable,
which most are agreed

by the example
urges upon the Christian, not prudence
in earthly things
of the worldling's prudence in the same, but rather, by the example of

the worldling's prudence in these things, urges upon
him prudence
in
heavenly.
Others, then, are nearer the truth
who complete
the sentence thus
" The children of
this
world are wiser in their generation" (in worldly

is,
matters) "than the children of light" in theirs, that

ters
;
in
heavenly mat-
the children of light being thus rebuked that they are not at half
the pains to win heaven
which the men of

by
its
this
world are
to
win earth
by
his.
that they are less provident in heavenly things than those are in earthly
is
that the world
is
better served
it is
servants than
God
is
This
the meaning, as
;
rightly,
though somewhat too vaguely, given by
many
for
it is
only perfectly seized
when we
see in the words, " in their
generation," or as they ought to be translated,

their generation,"'!'
"unto,"
or
"towards
an allusion, which has been strangely often missed,
* So Cajetan
t Ei;
Filii
hujus saeculi sunt
filiis
lucis prudentiores,
non absolute, sed
in
natione tenebrosa., sicut noctuEE melius vident in tenebris anlmalibus dlurnis.

r'nii
ycvcav
Triv
LavTuv,
which Theophylact explains

rfj
h tu
/Jiu tovto)
it is
-.
but then he
has
first
changed
ci;
rhv ycvtav into iv

suS,.
ytccS,
and as
if it
were
so,
translated in the
Vulgate, in generatione
52)
how
untenable such a translation of the words
Mr. Greswell has well shown {Exp. of the Far. v. 4, p. is, which indeed, could never have
been so much as entertained, except on the principle which, in the interpreting of Scripture,
has been so often adopted,

be
that prepositions have no meaning

it
in particular, but
may
made
to
mean anything which

was convenient
seems convenient
for the
it
moment
that they
should mean.
It
to turn c!s into iv,
because
seemed
to give
some
same
plain,
meaning
to the
words, though not a very satisfactory one.
But even the convenience
disappears,
when we once
is
regard the debtors of the parable as the

is
men
of the
ycvca as the steward,
and that here

no
allusion to them, for all then is easy
and
and
this
while there
force applied to
the
words^ and they are allowed
their full
:
rights.
Storr (Ojuisc. Acad., v. 3, p. 117) gives rightly the

terrenis unic6
meaning of
this verse
Rebus
inhiantes
(ol
viol
r,
aiwv
r.),
ut oeconomas inductus (v. 1, 3,
4) prudentia. erga
suam familiam
vloi r.
(h?
r. yev. t. Iovt.),
hoc
est,
erga idem sentientes,qui

(cf. v.
pariter ac ipsi sunt
aUw.
tovt.
erga fratres suos, terrena simihter inhiantes
5-7) antecedere solent

ita (cf. V. 4) student
lucis ac beatitatis
sempitemze
(v.
9-12) cupidos, qui saepe non

est, lucis
(v. 9),
familiam suam
(r. ycv. r. lavr.)
hoc
item cupidos (aequ6
cum
ipsis vloii r. (ûrof), et Eli T. aiuv. uKrivas
perventuros
ipsumque
communem
v. 2,
familia;
Dominum
(Matt. xxv. 40), beneficiis sibi devincire, ut igitur tanto magis fuerit
opus, admonitionem inculcare qua; sequiiur, Luc. xvi. 9.

p.
Weisse {Evang. Gesch.
161) translates the words
tt'j
r.
yev
t.
iavr. rightly,
Im Verkehr
mit ihres Gleichen
but Neander'too vaguely.
Von ihrem Standpunkte.

p.
For a masterly disposal of the loose
theory that
tli
and
Iv
are ever promiscuously and interchangeably used in the Greek
Testament, see Winer's Grammatik,
392, seq.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

to the debtors in the parable.
345
in the stew-
They, the ready accomplices

to
ard's fraud,
showed themselves
all
be
men
of the
same generation
j
as
he
was,
they were
of one race, children of the ungodly world

that the
and the
Lord's declaration
is,
men
of this world
obtain
make
it,
their intercourse
with one another more profitable,

ter for their interests,
more from
manage
it
bet-
such as those are, than do the children of light
their
intercourse with one another.
For what
opportunities, he
to
would imply,
are missed by these

earthly
in
last,
by those among them

friends for
whom
a share of the
what opportunities of laying up treasure the time come by showing love of making them or generally of doing of kindness poor the household of the men of the same generation as themselves, whom
mammon
is
intrusted,
heaven
to
to the
saints,
to
offices
to
faith
yet they
make
not, as they might, receivers of benefits,
from which they
themselves should hereafter reap an hundred-fold.

In the following verse the Lord exhorts his disciples not to miss these
example of him who bound to himself by benemen of his generation, so should they in like manner, by benefits, bind those who were like themselves children of light, and make friends, of them J* " And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. This mammon of unrighteousness," some explain
opportunities, but by the
fits
the
'^
^^
as wealth unjustly gotten,']'
edness ;" (Prov. X. 2

sessors of such
;)
by fraud and by violence, " treasures of wickbut plainly the first recommendation to the posto restore
it
would be
to its rightful
owners, as Zacchseus,
summing up
humaniter et
fuerit,
Yet
at the
same time, who could be

:
entirely satisfied with such a
of the parable as that given by Calvin
Summa
hujus parabolae
est,
benigne
cum
proximis nostris esse agendum, ut
quum ad Dei
tribunal
ventum
liberalitatis nostrae fructus
ad nos redeat.
Who
does not
feel that there
must be someThis
thing more in
is at
it
than merely this?
for if this only,
why an unjust steward?
the
sively,
same time the point which the early Church writers mainly, often exclumake, that the parable is an earnest exhortation to liberal almsgiving. So
Irenaeus {Con. Hcer.,
1.
4, c. 30),
Augustine
(Z)e
Civ. Dei,
1.
21,
c.
27), Athanasius,
Theophylact
so also Erasmus, Luther,
who
says, " It is a
sermon on good works
and
especially against avarice, that
men
abuse not wealth, but therewith help poor
and needy people,"
and many more.

make
the rest clean unto
t The words so interpreted would be easily open to abuse, as though a man might compound with his conscience and with God, and by giving some small portion
of alms out of unjustly acquired wealth,
him.
Plutarch
speaks thus of some,
dn-o
kpoavKiai
dcoaiffovi/Tcs,
and Augustine affirms

:
(Ser7n. 113, c. 2)
that such abuse of the
words was actually made
Hoc quidam male

est iniquitatis
intelligendo rapi-
untres alienas, et aliquid inde pauperibus largiuntur, et putunt se facere quodpreeceptum

est.
Dicunt enim, rapere res alienas,

Sanctis,
mammona
erogare inde aliquid,

Intellectus-
maximfe egentibus
iste
hoc
est facere
amicos de
mammona
iniquitatis.
est..
corrigendus est, imo de tabulis cordis vestri omnino delendus
23
346
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

his determination to do,
on his conversion, expressed
(Luke
xix. 8,) for

is
"he
that sacrificeth of a thing wrongfully gotten, his offering
ridicu-
; and seexxxv. 12,) and out of such there could never be offered accepted alms to that God who has said, " I hate rob-
lous," (Sirac. xxxiv. 18
bery
for
burnt offering."
Only when
this
restoration is impossible,*
which of course must continually be the case, could it be lawfully beOthers again say that it is not exactly wealth stowed upon the poor. which the present possessor has unjustly acquired, but that wealth which
from the very nature of the world and the world's business can scarcely
ever have been gotten together without sin somewhere,
thing of the defilement of the world from which
to
it
without some-
it
the present possessor, yet in ;f if not sin in
was gathered clinging some of those, nearer or

publicanorum
restitutio est
Thus
the
Jewish Proverb, Pastorum, exactorum,
et
difficilis.
t In this sense
Jerome quotes the proverb, Dives aut iniquus aut

:
iniqui hiEres, as
illustrative of the parable
and Cajetan
says,
it is
called
mammon
of unrighteousness,
E6
quod
rarae vel nullae sunt divitioe, in
quarum congregatione seu conversatione non

ministrorum, vel palrum seu avorum.
intervenerit peccatum, vel habentium, vel
We
might quote
Evang.,
in this view, Sirac. xxvii.
"
As
a nail sticketh
fast
between the joinings

Augustine {Qutest.
in eis constituunt
of the stones, so doth sin stick close between buying and selling."
1.
2, qu. 34)
Quia non sunt
istee divitiae nisi
iniquis, qui
spem atque copiam

{Adv.
beatitudinis suae.
Cf.
;
jSerm. 50, c. 4.
TertuUian's explanation
Marc,
of
4, c. 33) is a little different

:
money
et
is
so called because the love of it

totius seculi
is the root
all evil
;
Injustitiae
enim, auctorem,
dominatorem
numpar-
mum
scimus omnes
Melancthon,
it:
because
of the manifold abuses that are almost
inseparably connected with

tae [divitiae],
Vocat
mammonam
injustam non quod sint

sint,
injustfe
non quod contra conscientiam occupatcE
sed propter abusus multipliv. 13.)

I
ces, qui in hac infirmitale
humani generis sequi
solent.
(See Eccles.
One would more correctly
be glad to find true the assertion that

be spelt with a single m,)
mammon,
(which
believe
would
name of a Syrian god, who was worshipped as presiding over wealth, in the same way as Plutus is the god of riches in the Greek mythology for so the antithesis in the words, " Ve cannot serve God and mammon" would come out more strongly, Ye cannot serve the true God and an idol or
was
the
false
god at once.
But there
is
no satisfactory proof of the assertion.
It
is
repeated
by Schleusner, who makes, as usual, references which he has evidently never verified, one to Tertullian,[Ji Syris rehgios^ colebetur, teste Tertulliano] who says nothing of
the kind,
^rft).
il/arc,
1.
4, c.
33, which must be the passage meant: and another,
wliich being followed up, proves only that

tury said so.
an obscure grammarian of the eleventh cen1.
Neither Augustine {De Serm. Dom. in Mon.,
2,)
nor Jerome
All that
{Ad
Algas., qu. 6),
who
both explain the word, give an hint of the kind.

c. 2, is this
:
Augus-
tine says there, or

:
Serm. 113,
Quod
Punici dicunt
mammon,
Latinfe lu-
crum vocatur quod Hebraei dicunt mammona, Latinfe divitiae vocantur, and Jerome no more. The erroneous notion belongs to the middle ages. Thus Pet. Lombard (1. 2, Nomine daemonis divitiae vocantur, scilicet Mammona. Est enim Mammon dist. 6)
:
nomen
daemonis, quo nomine vocantur divitiae secundCim
Syram linguam.
See a good
note by Drusius in the Crit. Sac, (in loc.)
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

more remote, from or through whom he received
the wealth, he has inherited the obligation to
it
:
347
and so inheriting
the
make good
wrongs com-
mitted in the getting
it
together.
But
the comparison with ver. 12,
where
"unrighteous
mammon,"
is
unrighteousness,"
a phrase of course equivalent to ^'mammon of set against " true riches" these true being evident-
ly heavenly enduring goods, such as neither fade nor
fail,
makes
it
far
more probable
unstable
that the "
row
which
mammon, that if a man trust
manunon of unrighteousness " is the uncertain, which is one man's to-day, and another's to-morin,
he
is
sure
to
be trusting in a vain and de-
ceitful thing, that will sooner or later
prove false and betray his confi-
dence, so that he will find that trusting in
And "mammon
called, since
it
it he will have trusted in a lie.* of unrighteousness " it may in a deeper sense be justly is certain that in all wealth a principle of evil is implied^
for in a perfect state
of society
all
in
a realized kingdom of
there would be no such thing as property belonging to one
God upon earth man more
than another. In the
moment of the Church's fii'st love,'when

that believed
was
for
an instant realized, "
that kingdom were together, and had all
things
common jf and this existence of property has ever been so strongly felt as a witness for the selfishness of man, that in all ideas of a perfect
commonwealth,
well as a State
which, down from

Plato's
if perfect,
must of course be a Church as

of the
to the Socialists', this
commufairly
its
nion of goods has
made
a necessary condition.
So that though the posit
sessor of the wealth, or those
who
transmitted
to
him,
may have
acquired
it,
yet
it is
not less this " unrighteous'^
mammon,
witnessing in
very existence as one man's and not every man's,
for the corruption
and
for the absence of that highest love, which fall and selfishness of man, would have made each man feel that whatever was his, was also every one's beside, and rendered it impossible that a mine and thine should ever
The
use of aiiKui for " false" runs through the whole Septuagint.
liSiKog,
Tlius, Deut.
xix. 16, fidprvs

falsely.
(liStKa,)
a false witness
and
ver. 18, iiiapTvpnatv liSiKa,
he hath witnessed
See Prov. vi. 19; xii. 17; Jer. v. 31, "The prophets prophesy falsely," and many more examples might be adduced. So here the " unrighteous"
is
mammon
it,
the false
mammon,
that
which
will betray the reliance
which
is
placed on
which we must leave, or which

xiii. 4,)
will leave us.
(Prov. xxiii. 5.)
Thus
iarpol a&iKoi,
;
(Job
" physicians of no value."
and Paul
dSriXorrjTi.
(1
Tim.
vi.
17) bids
Timothy
to
So our Lord speaks of the d-narn tov tt\ovtov warn the rich that they trust not Iki n\ovTov
t Augustine
In
animam unam
:
et cor
unum
conflati caritatis igne,

Ixviii.
quorum nemo
dicebat aliquid proprium
righteousness :"
he explains " mam7non of unFortasse ea ipsa est iniquitas quia tu habes et alter non habet, tu
and Enarr. in Ps.
abundus
et alter eget
as he says elsewhere in the
same
spirit
Res
i.
alienee possidentur,
e.
cum
superfluBB possidentur.
Thus Aquinas
Divitise iniquitatis,
inaequalitatis
of
which one has so much, and another so
little.
348
have existed.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

With
all this,
we must
not of course forget that the atlittle
tempt prematurely
to realize this or
any other
fragment or corner
of the kingdom of God, apart from the rest
the corruption and evil of
man's heart remaining unremoved, and being either overlooked or denied
has ever been one of

in the world.
the most fruitful sources of the worst mischiefs
The
refer the
words,
^'
that
of saying, " that
when ye
when ye fail,"* are of course an euphemistic way die." Many, however, have been unwilling to
words
that follow, ''they
may receive you,"
to the friends
;
which
were to tion seeming

sion, to
be made by help of
to
the unrighteous
mammon
such an applica-
them
to attribute too
imply a right on their
much to men and to their intercesparts who had received the benefits, to
introduce their ben3factor3 into everlasting habitations,

trenchincr on the prerogative
and
it
so to be
which
is
God's alone.
Thus
has been
ryin<T
sometimes said "they" are the angels, as we find angels (ver. 22) carLazarus into Abraham's bosom ; or others understand that it is
Christ
God and
phrase
is
who
it is
meant
will receive
others again say, that the
impersonal, even as
it is
certain that St.
uses the plural impersonally

receive you,"
(xii. 11,
to,
20;
xxiii. 31), so that " they
Luke more than once may

be received."
would be equivalent
as
"You may
But
if
we
look
at this verse, not
containing an
isolated doctrine, but as
standino- in close
and living connexion with the parable which has just

it
preceded
it,
and of which
gives the moral,
we
shall at once perceive
how
this
phrase comes here to be used, and
its
justification.
There
that
is
* It
fails,"
i.
may
perhaps be a question whether the other reading,
tffXiV^, ("
when
it
e.y the
mammon,)
be not to be preferred.
It is
decidedly so by Schulz {Uh. d.
Par. V. Verwalter, p. 81), though he allows that as regards number of MSS. it is supported by inferior authority. Many however of the oldest versions bear witness for that reading which Lachniann has also admitted into his text yet not the Vulgate, which has,
;
cum
defecerilis,
nor yet the older Latin, (Irenêus, Con. Hoer.,
1.
4,
c.
49,)
quando fugati
fitly
fueritis.
iKêiTTCtv
We
certainly have
more than one word of

(Wisd.
the
same
family, to
it
:
show how
might be used in the sense which would thus be given
thus dniravpdv dv-
ckIûtttov ,
viii.
(Luke
xii.
33,)
avSK'Ki-nhi
it
OrjcriivpiU,
vii. 14,)
nXoiro; di'EvXcr^J,
is
(Wisd.
16.)
But on the oiher hand
may
be said that UXci-rciv
also frequently used for
the failing of
gint will supply
men through death many examples.
from the earth, of which any Lexicon of the Septua-
Should wXiVr/ be preferred, the words of Seneca (De

:
Benef.,
1.
6, c. 3)
will afford a striking parallel
Egregife mihi videtur
M. Antonius
apud Uabirium poetam, cum fortunam suam transeuntem alio videbat et sibi nihil requantum habere potuit, ei exclamare Hoc habeo, quodcumque dedi. lictum Hae sunt divitiae ccrtae, in quiicunque sortis humanae levitate, uno loco pervoluisset
.
.
mansurffi
qua; quo majores fuerint, hoc

1
tuo parcis
Procurator es
tuis et
Qua;ris
et
minorem habebunt invidiam. Quid tanquam quomodo ilia tua facias 1 donando. Consule
inexpugnabilem possessionem para
;
ergo rebus
ores
illas
certam
tibi
earum
honesti-
non solum, sed
tutiorcs facturus.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

plainly allusion here to the debtors
;
349
made
;
they, being
friends,
were
to
receive the deposed steward into temporary habitations
and the present
phrase
is
an echo of what had just gone before

light
in regard to
him and
them, by using which in his practical application of the parable, our
Lord throws back

the words further,
upon
that,
and
at
once fixes the attention of his

part.
faith
It is
hearers upon, and explains,
its
most important
all
idle to press
and against
analogy of
to
assert,
on the
strength of this single phrase, that with any except God, that even with
his glorified saints, there will reside
power of their own
to
kingdom of heaven; but
idle too,
on the other hand
to affirm, that
admit into the " they

to
may
receive you," in the second clause of the sentence, the first
can refer
any
other but the friends mentioned in
which
The
no one, unless
alarmed by the consequences which others might draw from the words,
could possibly for an instant call in question.*
true parallel
to,
and
at
once the explanation and the guard
of,
this passage, is evidently
Matt. XXV. 34-40.
The heavenly
habitations being termed " everlast-
ing"] are thus tacitly contrasted with the temporary shelter which was
all that the
steward, the child of the present world, procured for himself
with
also,
all
it
his plotting
and planning, his cunning and his dishonesty,
may
be, with the
temporary stewardship which every
man
exer-
f* Cocceius:
tulat ut referatur
Acfcoj/rai
posset intelligi impersonaliter,
sed filum parabolas pos-
ad amicos.
Non quod homines

ii,
suis meritis possint recipere in ajteret in
na tabernacula, sed quod

ejus volentibus,
a,
filiis
Dei Ifetantibus, applaudentibus,
Deo
27.
ac Spiritu
Deo
recipiantur
qui amici ipsoruin esse voluerint.

(ppi>i>rijxa
Voluntas jusCf.
torum
et
beatorum
est efficax, quia est

1.
tov
-KvcijiaTOi,
Rom.
viii.
Au3)
gustine, QucBst. Evang.,
2, qu.
38
and Gerhard {Loc. TheolL,
loc.
27,
c. 8,
Recipiunt nos turn precibus in hac

t
vita,
tum testimonio ac
trKnvri,
suffragio in die judicii.
These
aidjvioi,
those npoaKi'ipoi.
The term
the tent
which was pitched

xxiii.
at
evening and struck in the morning, or the temporary booth (Lev.

with planks and branches,
itself
40-43) erected
;
implies anything but a fixed and lasting habitation
on the contrary,
it
is
directly set against such,
Heb.
xi. 9,
10,
where
it
is
said that
Abraham dwelt
dations.
in tabernacles ((TKrivaTi), while
he looked
is is
for a city
which hath foun-
And
the
life
image from the unstable

(Isai. xxxviii. 12)
:
aKrivn
used by Hezekiah to set forth

departed, and
v. 1.
is
the briefness of
"
Mine age
is
removed from
But these
me
as a shepherd's tent."
See
.Tob
xxvii.
18; 2 Cor.
a
Thus
i.
too the tempo-
rary sojourning of the

cKrjvai
Son of God on
the earth
a/oji'oOi',
(John
14
they are ômi, (John xiv. 2), being pitched by God, " a tabernacle that shall not be taken down," {cKrivai al oi it!) cretaOdJatv, LXX.), " not one of the
are
aiwi/iot,
stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken."
(Isai. xxxiii.
20.)
It is
not accurate to adduce 2 Cor.
v. 1
here as a parallel, for
the " building of God, the house not
made with hands,
eternal in the heavens," of
which
St.
Paul there speaks,
glorified body, as contrasted
is plainly not the abiding heavenly mansions, but the with " our earthly house of this tabernacle," or our pres-
ent body, TO
yciHSss oKfjvosj as it is called,
Wisd.
ix.
15.
350
cises on earth, from
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

which
is
it is
not long before he
fails
and
is
removed
he should
how important
make
it
therefore, the
word
will
imply,
'that
sure his entrance into a kingdom that shall not be moved.*
In the verses which follow (10-13), and which stand in vital cohe-
rence with the parable,
it
is
very observable that not prudence, but

is
faithfulness, in the dispensation of the things earthly
especially com-
mended
so to put far
away any possible abuse
of the parable, as though
the unfaithfulness of the steward there could have found anything but the strongest reprobation from Christ; just as in another place, (Matt. X. 16,) when he said, " Be wise as serpents," lest this wisdom should
degenerate into cunning, he immediately guarded the precept, adding, " and harmless as doves." The things earthly whereof men have a dispensation, and wherein they
may show
their faithfulness
and their
fit-
ness
to
be intrusted with an higher stewardship, are slightingly called,

is
'Hhat which
least,''
as
compared with those
spiritual gifts
and graces
which are '^much;" they are termed ^ûnrighteous,'' or deceitful, "mammon," as set against the heavenly riches of faith and love, which are ^' true " and durable "riches ;" they are called "that lohich is another
man's,"-\
by comparison with the heavenly goods, which when

selves, assimilating to
possessed are our own, not something merely without us, but which
become a part of our very

the
our truest
life.
Thus
Lord
at
once casts a slight on the things worldly and temporal,
while yet at the same time he magnifies the importance of a right administration of
them
since
in
the
dispensing of
these,
declares to be the least,

to
which
he
to
be false and without any intrinsic worth,
be alien from man's essential being, he yet also declares that a

prove his
fidelity, will inevitably
man
show what is in him, and whether intrusted with that which has a true and enduring value, he be fit to be And in ver. 13 he further with a ministration in the kingdom of God.:{:
may
states
what the
fidelity
is,
which
in this stewardship is required

for
it
is
a choosing of
God
instead of
mammon
our lord.
For
in this
world
we
are in the condition of servants from
whom
two masters are claiming
So according
home." non
to
KoraXtxTti?,
but of the dead aiSiovi
Diodoru3 Siculus the Egyptians called the houses of the living Compare Eccles. xii. 5, " Man goeth to oiVouf.
his long
(oIkov ai<2vos avroii.
LXX.)
Augustine terms them.
t Divitiae
t
verae nee vestrse, as
The Jews have various sayings and parables concerning the manner in which God proves men in little things, to try whether they are worthy to be intrusted with great. Thus they say of David, that God tried him first with " those few sheep in the wilderness," which because he faithfully and boldly kept, (I Sam. xvii. .34-36,) therefore God
" took him from the sheepfolds to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance."
(Ps. Ixxviii. 70, 71.)
See Schoettgen's Hor. Hcb.
v. 1, p.
300.
THE UNJUST STEWARD.

allegiance
35X
is this
one
is
God, man's rightful lord, the other

given
to
unrighteous
mammon, which was

God's
interests,
be our servant,
to
be wielded by us in
slight,
and
in itself to
be considered by us as something
transient,
and another's
but which
has, in a sinful world, erected itself

us,
into a lord,
and now demands obedience from

faithful servants
which
if
we
yield,
we
can be no longer
to be
and stewards of God's.
We
to
shall no longer
lay out according to his will that which

us, but
to
he indeed
gave us
merely a thing beneath

its
which we have allowed

to
have a will and a voice of
own, and
speak
us in accents of
command.
We
cannot any longer be faithful servants of God, for that

his will, gives
upstart lord has a will so different from
opposite to his, that occasions
must speedily
arise
commands so when one or other will
have
to
be slighted, despised, and disobeyed, if the other be regarded,
honoured, and served ;*
God,
for instance, will
command
a scattering,
;
when mammon
upon our own
different,
will
urge
to a further
heaping and gathering
God
will
require spending upon others,

lusts.
when mammon,
it
or the world, a spending
Therefore, these two lords having characters so

will be impossible to re-
and giving commands so opposite,

iv.
concile their service (Jam.
4)
one must be
is
despised, if the other
is
held to
the only faithfulness to the one
to
break with the other
" Ye cannot serve f God and mammon." Such appears to me to be the connexion between ver. 13 and the preceding verses, and between the
whole of these verses and the parable of which they surely are intended
to give the moral.
* Stella has a lively comparison in illustration of this: Si duobus hominibus aliquS,

vi&,
sit.
incedentibus canis sequitur, non facile judicare poteris uter illorum
Dominus
ejus
sit.
Caeterum
si
alter
ab altero discedat, statim apparet clarissimfe quis Dominus
Canis enim, ignoto

tendit.
t
relicto,
ad notum accedit, eumque
Dominum
esse suura clarfe os-
AoiiXrfcii/, to
which word
its full
force
is to
be given, a force which Chrysostom exrich,
cellently brings out,
when
after noting
how Abraham aad Job were

it
and yet found
favour with God, he goes on to observe that

OVK iSovXsae
tcj fianfioiva,
was because each
of these though rich,

iji/.
uAX' ciycv (Ivtov koX CKparct
Kal ScaTTo-ri; [airov^ ov SoiXog
SeC'
also SuiCER, S. V. 6ov\cvoj.

t
Among
the
many
strange explanations to which this parable has given birth, peris
haps one of the strangest

it
recorded by Jerome
{Ad Algas.,Ep. 121,
qu. 6),
who
quotes
from the Commentaries of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch.
According
to this, the
un-
just steward is the apostle Paul,
being so, made himself a

the grace of God,
who was forcibly thrust out by God of his Judaism, and reception in many hearts, through the declaring the Gospel of'"
sins;
of the remission of
{Be
in his time
and
for
this
had
praise, that he
had welii
done, "being changed from the austerity of the
Law
to the
clemency of the Gospel."'

the'
But
see
that elsewhere
Script. Eccles.)
Jerome doubts the genuineness of

This
is
Commentaries extant
under the name of Theophilus.
only outdone
affirms the
by a modern writer mentioned by Unger (Be Par. Jes. Nat.,
p. 85),
who
352
THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS.
PARABLE XXVI.

LrKE
It
xvi.
19-31.
must be acknowledged
all
that the connexion of verses

is
15-18 with one

toge-
another, and of
say, as
with this parable,
not easy to trace, while yet to
Hammond
and others do, that
St.
Luke has here thrown

what should they do here
?
ther various sayings of our Lord's, uttered on very different occasions,

is
a most unsatisfactory explanation

to
for
or
how have they come

together, at
first
be here introduced
verses 15-18
all,
But however loosely strung

is
sight,
may
appear, there
a thread of
connexion running through them

the parable,
all is
there
and afterwards joining them with
is
one leading thought throughout, namely that in
contained rebuke and threatening for the Pharisees.

to a
They had
God and
be also
;
heard the Lord's exhortation

to his disciples that
large and liberal bounty, his warning

to
the world,
and they
they should not attempt

testified
serve at once
it
by look and gesture, and
may
" The Pharisees

discourse,
their hypocrisy
;
openly
in
words, their dislike of the doctrine, and scorn of the teacher

also,
they derided him."*
who were covetous, heard all these Whereupon he turned and addressed
to the disciples,
things,
to
and
them the
first
which had hitherto been

to the world,
while they were covetous,f

!
and rebuked,
that
is,
while their hearts

to
were secretly given
they yet would be accounted
love
Lord
to
have meant himself by the unjust steward

in
It
sounds almost irreverent
to
mention
immediate juxtaposition with

expositions
it
this, that
Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot
tave been proposed as the persons by him represented.

grovelling of
all
is
But the meanest and most

dr.
given by
Hartmann {Conun.
CEcon. Improho, Lips.
1830), of which
will suffice to
say that the author explains ver. 16 to

is
mean
this
Make
to yourselves friends of those that are rich in this world, (this
his interpretation of
'EK
T. iiofi T. (ifli/f.,)
that
when through any mishap you
get
low
in the world,
you
may
;be sure
of a retreat for the remainder of your days.
In Wor.F's Curca, and Kocher's

it
Analecta, other extravagant interpretations

nvhile to repeat.
may
be found, which
would be
little
worth
*
t
'Ei^CfiVKTrtpiôv avr6u.
The
(pi\apyvpia here attributed to the Pharisees

it
is
to be
taken in that widest and

vi.
deepest sense, in which
is
the fiâ vii'Tcov
rHi/ KaKuiv, (1
Tim.
10,) the
dependence
apon and
trust in the
world rather than in God.

God above
all
353
things,
they sought
is
a reputation for holiness and right-
eousness before
men; but he
proceeds, highly esteemed as they were
among men, they and their who knoweth the hearts. It

that dispensation, of
pretences were abomination before God,
then announced to them (ver. 16) how which they were the stewards and administrators,
was passing away

stewardship
is
"
The law and

to
the prophets were unto John ;" their
an end, and a larger dispensation, in which they shall no more have " the key of knowledge " to admit or to ex" The kingdom of God is preached, and every man clude, is begun
coming
presseth into it."
Yet not that the law

that
:
itself
it
was
it
to
be abolished, for that
would be eternal as the God

their guilt,
gave
(ver. 17,) being the expression
of his perfections and holy will
which when
to
was
so,
how
its
it
great
was
who, while they pretended

its
be zealous for
honour, the
in
guardians of
its
purity,
were continually tampering with
some of
most sacred enactments, as in those concerning marriage (ver. 18)5

its
and relaxing
obligations
and thereupon the parable follows.

were, indeed, " covetous " (ver. 14), lovers
is
But
that being evidently addressed to the Pharisees, a difficulty at

itself.
once presents
They
of money, but prodigal excess in living, like that of the rich man,
no-
where, either in history or in Scripture, imputed

trary,
to
them.
On
life,
the con-
we
learn from cotemporary historical * sources, that they were

in their
remarkably sparing and abstemious
manner of
is
many
of
them
rigid ascetics
and among
all
the severe rebukes
which our Lord
addressed to them, the sin of luxury and prodigal excess

to their
nowhere
laid
charge.
Their sins were in the main
spiritual,
and what other

for
sins they
had were such as were compatible with an high reputation
spirituality,
which covetousness
is
is,
but a profuse self-indulgence and an
eminently luxurious living
not.
Mosheim
feels
the difficulty so
strongly, that he supposes the parable to have been directed against the
Sadducees,'!' of
whose
selfish
indulgence of themselves, and hard-heart-
ed contempt
for
the needs of others, (for they had
wrought
at least
into their
very religious scheme that poverty was a crime, or

of the displeasure of God,) he says
tion.
an evidence
we
^hall then
have an exact descrip-
But the parable cannot be for them, there is nothing to make it probable that Sadducees were present, neither can there be any change between ver. 18 and 19 in the persons addressed this will appear yet
;
* Josephus {Antt., xviii. 1, 3) says of them, rhv Siatrav iêvrcyiiôvciv, ov&h

jAoXaKciTcpov cvSi66vTi,
ties.
t
is
Td
and that the Sadducees mocked them

p. 49.
for their fasts
and
austeri-
De
Reh. Christ, ante Const.,
So
also Wetstein,
who says
of the Pharisees,
xviii. 12,)
jejunabant crebro, modsstius vestiebantur.
This frequent fasting (Luke
could
not be reconciled with the faring sumptuously every day.
354
more evident
particle

in the original
than in our version, which has omitted the
which marks the continuity and unbroken tenor of the discourse,
and
to give the force of which, the parable ought to begin not simply, " There was," but, ''Now there was a certain rich man."
The
explanation, however, seems to be the following.
quite true that covetousness
gal excess in living,
While it is was the sin of the Pharisees, and not prodiwhile it was rather an undue gathering, than an
the
undue spending, yet hoarding and squandering so entirely grow out of same evil root, are so equally the consequences of unbelief in God and in God's word of trust in the creature rather than in the Creator,
are so equally a serving of
mammon
(though the form of the service

sin,
may
was
be different), that when the Lord would rebuke their
which
the love of the world and trust in the world rather than in the liv-
ing God, there was nothing to hinder his taking his example from a sin
opposite in appearance to theirs
which
yet
exactly the
same
evil condition
of heart,
by which
was one springing out of to condemn them.
For it ought never to be left out of sight or forgotten, that it is not the primary purpose of the parable to teach the fearful consequences which
will follow on the abuse of wealth
and on the hard-hearted contempt of
the poor,
belief,
this
only subordinately,
but the
is
fearful
consequences of un-
of having the heart set on this world, and refusing to give creto the invisible
dence
world which
here
known only
Dives in
its
to
faith, until
by
a miserable and too late experience the existence of such an unseen
world has been discovered.

only the forms which
The
;
sin of
root
is
unbelief:
self,
hard-hearted contempt of the poor, luxurious squandering on

it
are
takes
the seat of the disease

for the
is
within, these
are but the running sores
which witness
inward plague.
He who
believes not in an invisible world of righteousness and truth and spirit-
ual joy, must of necessity place his hope in the things which he sees,
whichê can
and
to look to
touch, and taste, and smell,
will
come
to trust in
them,
:
them
for his blessedness, for
he knows of no other
it
is
not of the essence of the matter, whether he hoards or squanders, in

tjje world. He who believes not in a God mercy and loving-kindness, and that will be an abundant rewarder of them that have showed mercy, and severe punisher of all that have refused to show it, will soon come to shut up his bowels of
either case he sets his hope on
delighting in
compassion from his brethren, whether that so he

in his chest, or
sin of
this
may
place more
money
have more
to
spend upon his own

all his
lusts.
This was the

not merely
Dives and the origin of

is
other sins, that he believed not in

faith,
higher world, which
beyond the grave,
a world but a kingdom of God, a kingdom of

apprehended by
truth and love

;
existing even in the midst of this cruel and
wicked world
and
this too

was
ggg
the sin of the worldly-minded Pharisees: and his punishment was,
that he
only to
itself
made the discovery of the existence of that truer state of things His unbelief shows his own unutterable and irremediable loss.
to
again in his supposing that his brethren would give heed to a ghost,
give heed to the sure word of God,
while they refused

the prophets.
to
it
Moses and
gives that
For
it is
of the very essence of unbelief, that

it
credence
Caligula,
to portents
and prodigies which

thundered
It is
refuses to the truth of God.
who mocked
it
at the existence of the gods,

;*
would hide himself

this,
;
under a bed when
and superstition and incredulity are

to
evermore twin brothers.

the rebuke of unbelief,
for if
is
most important
keep in mind that
the aim and central thought of the parable

to
we conceive of
it
its
primary purpose as
warn
against the abuse
of riches,
it is
will neither satisfactorily cohere with the discourse in
which
distin-
found, nor will the parable itself possess that unity of purpose, that
all
its
tending of
parts to a single centre,

:
which so remarkably
will
guishes the other parables of our Lord
it
seem
to divide itself into

to
two
parts,
which are only

point. f
slightly linked together,
have not a single
but a double
But when we pierce deeper
into the heart of the
matter, and contemplate unbelief as the essence of the rich man's sin,
and his hard-heartedness towards others with his prodigality towards

himself only as the forms
in
which
it
showed
itself,
we
vital
shall then at
once admire the perfect unity of

the conversation with
fare, the
all its parts,
and the
connexion of
Abraham
in the latter part, with the
sumptuous
it is
"purple and fine linen," of the earlier. But before proceeding to examine the parable
literal
it,
in its details,
wor-
thy of notice, that besides the
and obvious, there has also ever been

at
an
allegorical interpretation of
which, though
no time the dominant
one in the Church, has frequently made
itself heard,
and which has been
suggested by Augustine, by Gregory the Great, by Theophylact, and by
more modern commentators than one.

like so
According
to this the
parable,
many
others exclusively given
by
St.
Luke,
Dives
sets forth the past

is
and future relations of the Jew and Gentile.

Jewish nation, clothed
priest, the
the Jew, or the

fine linen of the
in the purple of the
king and the
" kingdom of priests."
He
fares sumptuously,
that
is,
the
Jews are richly provided with

ness
all spiritual privileges,
not hungering and
thirsting after the righteousness of

;
God, but
to
full
of their
own
righteous-
and who, instead of seeking

c.
impart their
own
blessings to the
* Suetonius, Caligula,
t
51.
One of
the latest impugners of the accuracy of the Evangelical records, as
we
possess them, (Weisse,

objection, only
Evang. Gesch.,
v. 2, p. 168,)
has brought forward

failed
this
very
showing thereby how entirely he has himself
to enter into the
spirit of the parable.
356
Gentiles
gate
rather
is,
to the
miserable Lazarus that lay covered with sores at their
session of the
that
to
by comparison in their exclusive posknowledge and favour of God. To them is announced the Pharisees, who might be considered as the representatives
glorified themselves
all that
of the nation, for in them

centrated
was
evil in the
Jewish
spirit
was con-
that
an end
is
approaching, nay, has come upon them alreato die
dy
Lazarus and Dives are both
the former state of things is to
be utterly abolished.
Lazarus
is to
bosom
be carried by angels into Abraham's
in
other words, the believing Gentiles are to be brought by the

into the
messengers of the new covenant

Gospel.
peace and consolations of the
But Dives is to be cast into the privileges which they abused, and
abiding upon them
hell,
the
Jews are
to forfeit all
will find themselves in the
most
miserable condition, exiles from the presence of God, and with his wrath
to the uttermost, so that
they shall seek in vain for
some, even the
slightest, alleviation of their
woful estate.
If the present had been expressly named a parable, it would tend somewhat to confirm this or some similar interpretation ;* for according to that commonly received, it is certainly no parable, the very essence of
that order of composition being, that one set of persons
and things
;
is
named, another
is
signified
they are
set
over against one another
but
* Teelman, in an elaborate essay (Com. in Luc. xvi.), has wrought out an expla-
nation in part similar to

is
this,
but also with important differences.

is
is,
In this too. Dives
the Jewish people, but by Lazarus

full
signified Christ, rejected
and despised by the

explanation,
proud nation, and
of sores, that
(Isai.
bearing the sins of his people, wounded and

3-5.)
bruised for their iniquities.
liii.
Vitringa gives 'the same

it is
(Erkldr. der Parab., p. 939,) but

(Qucest. Evang.,\. 2, qu. 38):
it is
not modern, for
mentioned by Augustine
. . .
Lazarum Dominum
significare accipiamus
jacen-
tem ad januam
tate dejecit.
nis,
divitis,
quia se ad aures superbissimas Judaeorum Incarnationis huniili.
(2 Cor.
viii. 9.)
Ulcera passiones sunt Domini ex infirmitate car-
quam
pro nobis suscipere dignatus est
...
Sinus Abrahae, secretum Patris, quo

It is to
post passionem resurgens assumptus est Dominus.
be found also in
Ambrose
(Exp. in Luc,
daeis,
1.
8, c. 15)
Cui [Lazaro] similem ilium puto, qui caesus ssepius a Ju-
ad patientiam credentium et vocationem gentium ulcera sui corporis lambenda

;
quibusdam velut canibus offerebat
and then he quotes Matt. xv. 27.

that
See also Gill's

infa-
Exp. of the N.
T., (in loc.)
Schleiermacher's supposition
is
Herod Antipas,
is
mous
for his incestuous
marriage, (see ver. 18,)
pointed at in Dives
sufficiently
curious,
and one might be tempted
at first to suppose, original.
Yet
this interpretac.
tion, in its
germ
at least, is to
be found in TertuUian (Adv. Marc.,\. 4,
34).
He
is
too sees in ver. 18 an allusion to Herod's marriage, and observes that the connexion
closer than at
first
sight appears,
between that verse and the parable which follows

parabolae]
Nam
et illud [scil.
est,
argumentum
quantum ad
Scripturae
superficicm, subit6
propositum
quantCim ad intentionem sensfts et ipsum cohaeret mentioni Joannis
malfe tractati, et sugillatui Herodis malfe maritati, utriusque exitum deformans, Herodis
tormenta
et
Joannis refrigeria.

here the rich
357
man would mean
the purple and fine linen
a rich man, and the poor man a poor would mean purple and fine linen, and so on.
Thus,
in fact, the question
concerning which there has been such a va-
riety of opinion from the
first,
it
namely, whether
this
be a parable, or an
history, (real or fictitious,
matters not,) does in fact wholly depend on
the
manner
if that
in
which
it is
interpreted: if the ordinary interpretation be
the right one,
it is
certainly not, in the strictest sense of the word, a parit
able
above proposed, or one similar,

obvious practical value:
is.*
Nor
will
it,
say
those
lose
who
support the allegorical explanation, even if that be admitted,

its
it
any of
will
still,
as before, be a
warn-
ing against trust in the creature, a declaration of the fearful conse-
quences of unbelief, only that the lower selfishness of the

used as a symbol
to set forth the
flesh will be
It
more
spiritual selfishness.
to
will not,
indeed, any longer be the ultimate
aim of the parable
teach the mise-
rable
living
doom which must

merely
follow on the selfish abuse of worldly goods, the
for this present
world
but yet more strikingly, that misethat

it
rable
doom
is
assumed as so certain and evident,
may
be used as
the substratum on which to superinduce another moral, through which

to aflford
another warninij. Whatever might, according
to the
more usual
all
interpretation,
have been drawn from
it,
of earnest warning for
the
children of this present world,
all who are unmindful, in woe around them, of the distresses of their fellow-men, the same may be drawn from it still. Only, in addition to this warning to the world, it
who have faith in nothing beyond it, for their own abundance, of the infinite want and
will yield
another deeper warning to the Church, that

itself in the
it
do not glorify
and exalt
that
it
multitude of
its
own
blessings and privileges, but

spiritual
have a deep and feeling sense of the
wants and miseries

to
of
all
who know
not God, and that
it
seek earnestly
remove them. Of
;
this interpretation I will
say something more presently
it is
plainly not
incompatible with the
commonly received
interpretation, to
which
it
is
now
time
to return.
" There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine
linen,
and fared sumptuously^ every day ^^
habitually
clothed, for so
* For a
CER's TheS.,
list
S.
of the interpreters,
who have
this,
held one view and the other, see Sci-
v. Aaâpos.
is
t Parkhurst
not satisfied with
an inadequate rendering of the

of heart in which the rich
original (eixppatvSfiefOi
thing, he says, wanting in our version, that
"fared sumptuously," which he thinks There is someAa/iirpws). should show the exultation and merriment
man
lived.
He
proposes, "
who
lived in jovial splendour ;"
and Mr. Greswell, " enjoying himself sumptuously."

p.
Teelman {Comm.
in
Luc.
xvi.,
320, seq.) makes the same objection to the Vulgate, " epulabatur
lautfe,"
and enters
seems to
into the matter at length.
The
old Italic
was nearer
to their view, for
it
358

the
much
parel
;
word implies
it
^^
was not on some high day

fare,
it
that he thus
arrayed himself, but this

so too his
purple and fine linen" was his ordinary ap-
sumptuous
which
was
his
every day's entertainment.

is
The extreme
royal colour
gift.
;
costliness of the purple

this
dye of antiquity
;
well
known
:*
the honour too in
colour was held
it
was accounted the

in the East, a royal
;
the purple
;
garment was then, as now Dan.

v.
(Esth. xviii. 15
it
Mace.
x.
20
xi.
58
xiv.
43.)
With
too idols
were often clothed.

its
(Jer. x. 9.)
then of pride as of luxury in
use.
And
the
There was as much byssus, which we have

costliest
rightly translated "fine linen"
was hardly
in less price or esteem, f so
that he plainly sought out for himself all that
was
and
rarest.
Yet while
like those
this
was
so, it
has often been observed, and cannot be obis
served too often, that he

rich
not accused of
men
in
St.
James
(v. 1-6), of
any breach of the law, not, any flagrant crimes.
" Jesus said not, a calumniator,
he
he
said not, an oppressor of the poor,
said not, a robber of other
men's goods, nor a receiver of such, nor
a false accuser,
he
said not, a spoiler of orphans, a
widows
nothing of these.
But what did he say
persecutor of
cer-
'
There was a
have had (Ir^neus, Con. Hcbt., 1. 3,c. 41) jucundabatur nitidfe. So Luther, who translates, " Und lebte herrlich und in Freuden." But the immediate mention which follows, of
the crumbs falling from the table,
ings,
makes
it
most probable
that
;
some sumptuous
and both
in this.
feast-
some Eximid,
veste et victu convivia, are here indicated
\afnrp6;
and
ei(ppaivoiiat, if
oftener used in the other sense, are frequently
enough
Hesychius
interprets
cv(0')(^ridcvTa is,
as =zti<ppav(livTa, and
we
read of Xajinpa iSccâra (Sirac. xxix. 26).

substitutes for
life it
:
* That
the true sea-purple.
There were many cheaper
thus
one, in Lucian's
Namgium,
c.
22,
who
is
desiring to lay out for himself a
like that
of Dives, and in imagination heaping on himself every thing of the costliest, says,
laQiii iiTi
TovToti uXovpy'ts, [that is, aXos cpyoi', the

Its rarity arose
true
work
of the sea],
-oi 6
/Sios
olos
d/?p(5raro{.
from the exceeding small quantity, but a few drops, of the

found in each
fish.
hquid which served
for the dyeing,
(Pun., H. N.,
it
).
9, c. 60.)
All
modern
inquirers have failed to discover
what
shell-fish
s.
exactly
was which
yielded
the precious dye.
(Winer's Real WOrterhuch,

1.
v.
Purpur.)
t Flint {H. N.,
19, c. 4) tells of a kind of byssus
which was exchanged

It is
for its
weight
in gold
it
served, he says, mulierum maximfe deliciis.
not probable, as
has been sometimes asserted, that

so that indeed
it
we have an
iv iCu. ivoXv
in
"purple and fine linen,"
signifies fine linen
dyed of a purple hue.
Though
//.
the byssus did

;
sometimes receive
Rev. xix. 8, 14, "
this colour, yet its glory
was
;"
rather in
its
dazzling whiteness
thu3
fine linen,
white and clean
and Pliny,
eis
N.,
1.
19, c. 2, speaking
;
of the fine linen of Upper Egypt,

vestes inde gratissimce.
robe.
Nee
ulla sunt
candore mollitia.que praeferenda
The
byssus here was the inner vest, the purple the outer
The two occur
together, Rev. xviii. 12, as part of the merchandise of Babylon.

viii.
The
huch,
blue and white formed an highly prized combination of colours, Esth.

s. v.
15.
(See the Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Antt.,

s. V.
Byssus, p. 169
d.
Winer's Real
WOrter;
Baumwolle
and Bahr's Symholih
Mas.
Cult., v. 1, pp. 310,
338
v. 2,
p. 72.)

tain rich man,'
359
f
And what was
his
crime
lazar lying at his gate7

as he
is
and lying unrelieved."*
Nor is he even accused of being,
some-
times called, for instance in the heading of the chapter in our Bibles, "a glutton." To call him such, " a Sir Epicure Mammom," serves
only
to
turn the edge of the parable.

to
For, on the contrary, there
is
nothing
make us
think him other than a reputable man,

to
one of
Augus-
whom
none could say worse than that he loved

all
dwell at ease, that he
desired to remove far off from himself
things painful to the flesh, to
surround himself with

told us, but the poor
tine,:}:
all
things pleasurable.
:f
His name Christ has not

not to you," asks
man's only
"
Seems he
have been reading from that book where he found the name of the poor man written, but found not the name of the rich ; for that book "Jesus," says Cajetan, " of a purpose named the is the book of life ?"
"
to
beggar, but the rich
man
he designated merely as
'
a certain man,' so
to
testify that the spiritual order of things is
contrary to the worldly..
In
the world, the

of,
names of the
if
rich are
they are designated by their names
known, and when they are talked but the names of the poor are
;
either not
known, or
known
are counted unworthy to be particularly
noted. "
At
earth,
the gate of the rich
was thus unrecognized

it
man, whose name though well known on in heaven, the beggar Lazarus was flung
last
brought
may
;
be thither, by the
who
took any care or charge of
and who now released themselves gladly of their charge, counting they had done enough when they had cast him under
him upon earth

the eye, and so
upon the
pity, of
one so easily able

at
to help
them.
The
it
circumstance that Lazarus was laid
the gate, in the vestibule
might
be, or
open porch, of the rich man's palace, which was probably
henceforth his only home, this circumstance contains an ample reply
* Augustine, {Serm. 178,
c. 3.)
Massillon has one of his most deeply impressive
Lent sermons upon
this parable, in
which he labours especially
to bring out this point.
t Aaâpos, abridged from 'EXedâpus, and once called by Tertullian Eleazar.

are two derivations given of the name, the one most generally received would
There
make
it,
Who
has
God
only for his help
but Olshausen adheres to the other, which would

s.
make Aaâpoj
dom,
d/?o^0ijroj.
(See Suicer's Thes.,

this parable
v. Adiâpos.)
It is
a striking eviof Christenit
dence of the deep impression which

that the term, lazar, should
its
has
have passed into so
made on the mind many languages as

still
has, losing
altogether
the rich
signification as a proper
;
name.
to
Euthymius mentions
that
some
called
man, Nimeusis
and they used

:
show, perhaps
:
pretend to show, the
ruins of his house at Jerusalem
thus an old traveller

illius
Inde ad quindecim passus proepulonis, ex quadratis et dolatis
cedentibus obviam fiunt aedes (ut volant) divilis
constructae lapidibus, magnifico et eleganti opere, altis muris licet ruinosis conspicuae.
t
Serm. 41.
So Bengel
Lazarus nomine suo notus in
caelo
dives
non censetur nomine
ullo.
360
to one,*

who
in his
eagerness to fasten some charge on Scripture, assufficient given
serts that there is
no reason
have been punished as he was,

been his wealth."
why
the rich
man
should
to
that " his only
crime seems
have
The beggar was

did not
cast at his very porch, so that igin
norance of his distresses and miseries might
no wise be pleaded.
itself
And
even
if the rich
it
man
was
?
know, that ignorance
would have been

the leisure of
his crime, for
his task to
;
have made himself acquainted with the
misery that was round him

wealth given him
since for what else
was
As
the rich
man's splendid manner of living was painted

few as expressive
him,
is set
in a
few
and
strokes, so in a
forth to us the
full
utter misery
destitution of Lazarus.
Like Job, he was "

for since
it is
of sores"
no
man gave
to
hungry, and
from
evidently our Lord's purpose to deit
scribe the extreme of earthly destitution,

that Jie desired, hut in vain, " to be
the rich
seems most probably meant
man's table;" (Judg.
i.
7)
even
fed
with the crumbs which fell
these were not thrown to him,

satisfied
at least not in
such a measure that he could be
with
them.-f*
Shut out from human fellowship and human

only from the
pity,
he found sympathy
dumb animals
" the dogs came and licked his sores,"
probably the animals without a master that wander through the streets
of an Eastern city.
after him,
(Ps. lix. 15, 16.)

this
to
Chrysostom indeed, and others
have seen in
circumstance an evidence of the extreme
weakness and helplessness
which disease and want had reduced him

to fray
he lay like one dead, and without strength even
away
:
the dogs,
which approached
virtue
to lick his sores,

is
and thus
to
aggravate his misery by

is
exasperating their pain. Yet this
hardly what
meant
for
medicinal
was
in ancient times popularly attributed to

it
the tongue of the
dog
;:]:
being moist and smooth,
would certainly not exasperate, but
rather assuage the pain of a wound.
The circumstance seems
rather
mentioned
set
to
them
in
enhance the cruelty and neglect of the rich man, and to man neglected his fellow- man, beheld the strongest light;
* Strauss, {Leben Jesu,
v. 1, p.
671,) but he has had a forerunner here, for

is
among
the essays written on this parable, there
one (reprinted in Ease's Thes. Theol.,) by
A. L. Konigsmann, which is entitled, Be Divite Epulone d, Christo immisericordice non accusato. 1708. But Grotius rightly remarks that Lazarus was cast, in ipso and see Neander's Leben divitis aspectu ut ignorantiam caussari nullo modo posset
;
Jesu, p. 205, note.
He
has a poor notion of the Christian law of love,
who under-
takes the defence of Dives.
The words however which

H. de Sto Victore
s. v.
:
are found in the Vulgate, Et
nemo
illi
dabat, do not
belong here, and are evidently transferred from ch. xv. 16.
t
Lingua canis dum
lingit vulnus, curat.
(See also
Seal WOrterbuch,
Speichel.)
is
When
Hilary too (Tract, in Fs. cxxii.) sets
Winer, him
in aggestu fimi, this also
a needless exaggeration of his own.

his sufferings with a careless
261
it
eye and an unmoved heart, yet was

little
misery which even the beasts had pity on, so that what
they did
to alleviate his sufferings.
they could
We
have
in fact in the
two descrip;
tions stroke for stroke.
Dives
is
covered with purple and fine linen
Lazarus
is
covered only with sores.
other desires to be fed with crumbs.
The one fares sumptuously, the The one, although this is left to
to wait
our imagination
to
fill
up, has
numerous attendants
on his least
caprice, the other only dogs to tend his sores.
There
Lazarus
is
nothing expressly said concerning the moral condition of
his faith, his patience, his resignation to the will of

all
God.
Yet
these from the sequel must
be assumed, since his poverty of itself

to
would never have brought him

ly
Abraham's bosom.
We may certain-
assume
that he suffered after a godly sort, that he did not " call the
his heart in vain, but pa-
proud happy," nor say that he had cleansed

tiently abided, putting his trust in the Lord.
themselves, however great,
But for this, his sufferings would have profited him nothing, would have
In
all
brought him not a whit nearer the kingdom of God.

of the parable, this should never be
left
homiletic use
out of sight.
has more than one admirable discourse, in

to the rich
Thus Augustine which, having brought home
and great,
is
to the
prosperous children of the world, the awful
to the poor, and exhorts mere outward poverty were of itself sufficient to bring them into a conformity with Lazarus, and intoHe tells them that the possession of the good things which he inherited. poverty of spirit must go along with that external poverty, which last is
warning which
here for them, he turns round
them
that they be not deceived, as though
to be looked at, not as itself constituting humility, but only as a great*
help
to
it
even
it
as wealth
is to
be regarded not as of necessity excluding;

it,
humility, but only as a great hindrance to
a great temptation,
lest<
they that have
be high-minded, and come
to trust in
those uncertain.'
note,,
riches, rather than in the living
God
and he often bids them

carried,
how
the very
whose bosom Lazarus was had been on earth rich in flocks, and in herds, and
into
Abraham
was one who^
in all possessions.*
* Thus, Servi. 14,

eitus,
c.
2: Ait mihi quisque mendicus debilitate fessus, pannis obsimilis
fame languidus, Mihi debetur regnum caelorum, ego enim

est cui debetur
sum
illi
Laza-
ro
Nostrum genus
regnum cajlorum, non
illi
generi qui induuntur
purpura, et
bysso, et
epulantur quotidie splendid^.

dicis,
Augustine replies: Ciim ilium

sis
sanctum ulcerosum
te esse
timeo ne superbiendo non
quod
dicis.
Esto-
verus pauper, esto pins, esto humilis.

tate gloriaris, quia talis fuit
ille
Nam
si
de
ipsa.
pannosEi et ulcerosa, pauper-
qui ante
domum
divitis
inops jacebat, attendis quia^

1)
:
pauper
fuit et aliud
non
attendis.
{Enarr. in Ps. Ixxxv.
Nunquid vere
ille
ille
pau-
per merito
illius inopiae
ablatus est ab angelis, dives
autem
peccato divitiarum.
suarum ad tormenta missus est?
In
illo
paupere humilitas
intelligitur honorificata, in,
24
362
But
end
:

this
worldly glory and this worldly misery are alike to have an

It
they are the passing shows of things, not the abiding realities. "
to
!
came
pass that the beggar died/'

he
he
is
died,
and how mighty the
change
whom
but a
moment
**
the dogs cared
for, is
tended of angels,
into
edness prepared for him,*
man served, whom none but by them carried into the blessAbraham's bosom." This last phrase
before no
has been sometimes explained as though he was brought into the chiefest place of honour and felicity, such as the sons of Zebedee asked for themselves, (Matt. XX. 23,) that he
Abraham
all
in the
was admitted not merely to sit down with kingdom of heaven, at the heavenly festival, whereunto
the faithful should be admitted, but to lean on his bosom, an honour
of which one only could partake, as John the beloved disciple leaned
upon Jesus' bosom

altogether upon a
at the
paschal supper.
wrong assumption, since

not that of a feast at
is
the
ham's bosom"
is
all.
But this explanation starts image underlying ''AbraHades is not the place of the
viii.
great festival of the kingdom, which
reserved for the actual setting up

allusion Matt.
of that kingdom, and to which there

29, 30.
its
is
11
Luke
is to
is
xiii.
This
is
not a parallel passage with those, but rather

i.
find
explanation from John
18,
where the only-begotten Son

it is
declared
to
be in the bosom of the Father:
a figurative phrase to express the

Besides, the Jews, from
deep quietness of an innermost communion. f
illo
divite superbia
damnata.
Certe
iile
Breviter probo, quia non SivitijE, sed supeibla in
illo
divite cruciabatur.
pauper in sinum Abrahae sublatus
est.
De
ipso
Abra-
ham
dicit Sciiptura, quia
habebat hie plurimum auri et argenti, et dives

rapitur,
?
fuit in terra.
Si qui dives est
ad tormenta
ablatum
in
sinum siium susciperet
quomodo Abraham Sed erat Abraham

Cf.
?
praecesserat pauperem, ut
in divitiis pauper humilis,
11.
tremens omnia praecepta et obaudiens.
Enarr. in Ps. cxxxi. 15, and in Fs.
9:
Quid
tibi
prodest,
si
eges facultate, et ardes eupiditate
This
full
last
passage
is
worth
xix.
referring to, for the profound insight
which
ne
it
gives into the
meaning of Matt.
23-26.
* Luther
:
En
qui
dum
vivebat,
unum quidcm hominem

The
habuit amicum, rebelief
pente non unius angeli, sed plurium ministeiio honoratur.
was current
;
among
the
Jews
v.
that the souls of the rigiiteous
were carried by angels

(See
into paradise
there are
frequent allusions to this in the apocryphal gospels.

1, pp.
Thii.o's
Cod.
Apocryphu&,
25, 45,
777.)
In the heathen mythology the task was as-
signed to Mercury,
n-o^Toro?, xpvôiTOfiiTCs, i/'ii;ây(oy(5s.
So Horace
Tu
pias IsEtis ani-
mas
reponis Sedibus.
:
t Lud. Capellus (Spicilegium, p. 56)

dictus
Porro sinus Abrahae non tam videtur hie

vulg6 accipitur haec phrasis)
d more accumbentium mensae
(uti
quam
potius
ii
puerulis qui parentibus sunt carissimi, quos parentes in sinu sive gremio fovent, in quo
etiam suaviter interdum quiescunt.
And Gerhard
(Loc. Thcoll., loc. 27,
c. 8,
3)
Vocatur sinus melaphora, ducta. k parentibus, qui puerulos suos diurnS discursitatione
fessos; vel ex peregrinatione
latii
domum
reversos, aut ex adverso aliquo casu ejulantes, so-
causa
in
sinum suum
recipiunt, ut ibi suaviter quiescant.
Theophylact assumes

whom
the phrase
is
363
going
to
borrowed, spoke of
all true believers as
Abraham, as being received into his bosom. To be in Abraham's bosom was equivalent with them to the being " in the garden of Eden," or " under the throne of glory," the being gathered into the general receptacle of
happy but waiting
souls.*
(See Wisd.
iii.
1-3.)
The
expression alrea-
dy existing among them received here the sanction and seal of Christ, and has come thus to be accepted by the Church, f which has understood
by it in like manner the state of painless expectation, of blissful repose, which should intervene between the death of the faithful in Christ Jesus, and their perfect consummation and bliss at his coming in his glorious
kingdom.
but not
It is
the " Paradise " of

vi.
Luke
as
xxiii. 43, the place

it,
of the souls
blessedness,
under the altar; (Rev.

glory.:]:
9;)
it
is,
some distinguish
Hither, to this haven of rest and consolation, Lazarus,
after all his troubles,
was
safely borne.
But "
sequently
the rich
to
man
also died
and was buried"
it
would appear sub-
mercy of God was manifest in the order of their deaths Lazarus was more early exempted from the miseries o^ his earthly lot Dives was allowed a longer time and space for repentance. But at last his day of grace came to an end ;
Lazarus, so
that, as
has been noted, the

:
it is
possible that the putting of

;
Lazarus under
his
eye had been
his final
trial
his neglect of
him the
suffering to run over.
drop that made the cup of God's longEntertaining him, he might have unawares enlast
He had led slip, however, this latest opportunity, and tertained angels. on the death of Lazarus follows hard, as would seem, his own. He '^ also died and was hurled." There is a sublime irony, a stain upon
the
image
to be rather
that of
an harbour, where the

life.
faithful
cast anchor
and are in
quiet after the storms
and
tribulations of
This escapes us
KoXiroi.
in the English, but
might be suggested equally by the Latin sinus as the Greek * See Lightfoot's Hor. Heb., in
t
Ice.
Augustine (p. 187)
For ample quotations from the Greek Fathers, see Suicer's Thes., s. v. K6\nos. is worth referring to, and Tertullian {De Anima,c. 58). Aquinas {Sum. Theol., pars 3, qu. 52, art. 2) gives the view of the middle ages Cajetan, of
;
the
modern Romish Church, which,
for
good reasons of
:
as
much
as possible the felicity of that middle state
own, has always depressed In limbo patrum erat consolatio

its
turn securitatis aeternae beatitudinis,

poena,
sensiis.
tum
sanctae societatis, turn exemptionis ab

1.
omni
Limborch {Theol.
Christ.,
6, c. 10, 8)
has a striking passage, in
which, starting from the Scriptural phrase of death as a
slelj], he compares the intermediate state of the good to a sweet and joyful dream, while the wicked are as men
afflicted
with horrible and frightful dreams, each being to

;
waken on
the reality of the
things of which he has been dreaming

state a praelibatio sententiae.
X
in this agreeing with Tertullian,
who
calls that
Beatitude, but not gloria.
Augustine {Serm. 41)

volavit.
Sarcina Christi, pennae sunt.
His pennis
ille
pauper in
sinum Abrahae
364
all

it
earthly glory, in this mention of his burial, connected as

is
is
with
what
immediately
to follow.
all
No
doubt
we
are
meant
to infer that
he
had a splendid funeral,

of the world
;*
things according to the most approved
pomp
this splendid
carrying
to the
grave
is
for
him what the
carrying into Abraham's bosom was for Lazarus, which, however,

profits
it is
his equivalent,
him but little where now he is.f him an awakening from his flattering dream of ease and pleasure and delight upon the stern and terrible realities of
For
his death is for
the
life to
come.
He
has sought to save his
life,
and has
lost
it.
The
play in which he acted the rich

stage, he
man
is
ended, and as he went off the
was
stripped bare of
all
the trappings with

:
which he had been

is
furnished, that he might sustain his part
all that
remains
the fact that
he has played
it
badly, and so will have no praise, but rather extremest
blame, from him
who
:
allotted
him the character
to sustain.:}:
* Seculariter fucata
Augustine.
+ See for a noble passage on the rich man's buria! Augustine {Enarr. in Fs. xlviii.
18)
Spiritus torquetur
apnd
inferos, quid
linteis
1
illi
prodest quia corpus jacet in cinnamis el

si
aromatibus involatum pretiosis
Tanquam
dominus domvis mittatur
in exili-
m,
et tu ernes parietes ipsius.
Ille in exilio
eget, et
fame
deficit, vix sibi
invenit nbi
somnnm
capiat, et In dicis, Felix est,
nam
ornata est
unam cellam domns iilius. The
whole exposition of the Psalm is full of interesting niaUer in regard of this parable. Cf. According to Jewish notions, it was this very burial which Enarr. in Ps xxxiii. 22.
handed him over

justa in hoc
to his torments, for in the
book Sobar
it is
said
Anima
quae
non esl
mundo permanet, donee corpus sepultum
est,
quo facto ipsa deducitur in
gehennam.
X
end some proud pan

tion of the rich
toil in the
Both these images, that of awaking from a dream of in a play, are used by Chrysostom lo
delight,
and bringing
"
to
an
set forth the altered condi1, c. 8)

:
man after
his death.
{Ad
T/teod. Laps.,
1.
For as they who

this,
mines, or undergo some other penalty more terrible even than

fall lo
when
per-
chance they
in
sleep under their
many
labours and their most bitter existence, and
dreams behold themselves lapped
in delights
and
in ail rich
abundance, yet after they
are
awakened owe no thanks
to their
dreams
so also that rich
man,
as in a
dream be-
ing wealthy for this present
life,
after his migration

:
hence was punished with that bitter
punishment."
And
again {De Laz., Cone. 11)
" For as on the stage some enter, as-
suming
diers,
the
masks of kings and
captains, physicians and orators, philosophers

life,
and
sol-
being in truth nothing of the kind, so also in the present
wealth and poverty
are only masks.
As
then,
when thou
sittest in the theatre,
and beholdest one playing
below,
who
sustains the part of a king, thou dost not count

desirest to be such as he
;
him happy, nor esteemeat

to be
this,
him a king, nor

him happy
world as
rich,
but
knowing him
one of the
common
people, a ropemaker or a blacksmith, or

for his
some such a one as
thou dost not esteem
mask and
his robe's sake, nor judgest of his condition

:
from these, but
boldest l.im cheap for the meanness of his true condition

in a theatre,
so also, here sitting in the

seest
and beholding men playing as on a stage, when thou

rich, but to be
is
many
or
count them not to be truly
wearing the masks of

often a slave, or one
rich.
For as he,
sells
figs
who on
the stage plays the king or captain,
who
all.
grapes in the market, so also this rich
man
is
often in reality poorest ot
lô, if
thou

From
range of
manifest.
this
355
verse the scene of the parable passes beyond the range of

into the
to
our experience
his
unknown world
of
spirits,
but not beyond the
eye
whom
both worlds, that and this, are alike open and
He
appears as
much
at
home
there as here
he moves in
that world as with a perfect familiarity, speaking without astonishment,
as of things which he knows.
He
still
indeed continues
to
use the lan-
guage of men, as the only language by which he could make himself intelligible to men. Yet is it not easy now to separate between what is merely figure, vehicle for truth, and what is to be held fast as itself
essential
truth.*
We may
safely say that the form in
which the exitself, is
pression of pain, and of desire after alleviation, embodies

rative,
figu-
even as the dialogue between Abraham and Dives belongs

to the parabolical
in the
same way
clothing of the truth.
It is
indeed the hope

is
and longing
after
deliverance which alternately rises, and

in
again
crushed by the voice of the condemning law speaking

the conscience
is
:
and through
as
by the seeing of Lazarus
in
Abraham's bosom,
conveyed
to
us the truth, that the
misery of the wicked will be
strip
him of his mask, and unfoW
his conscience,
and scrutinize his inward
parts,
thou
wik
and
there find a great penury of virtue, tliou wilt find
him
to be indeed the
most abject
of men.
And
as in the theatre,
when evening
is
come and
the spectators are departed,

their
all,
the players are gone forth from thence, having laid
aside
masks and
their
(dresses,
then they
;
who
before
showed
as kings and captains to
appear
now
all
as they
truly are
so now,
when death approaches and
the audience
is
dismissed,
laying
aside the
their
masks of wealth and of poverty depart from hence, and being judged only by and some glorious, but works, appear some indeed truly rich, but some poor
;
others without honour."
Cf. Augustine,
to set forth the fortasse
Serm. 345.
Arndt (De Vera
Christ.,
1.
1, c.
20) has a
fine
comparison
:
parable, he says
ut
illi
Quos homines
quasi
same truth. Of such as the rich man in our non male camelis et rauliscomparaveris nam
;
per rupes
montiumque
edita vesles sericas, genimas, aromata, et generosa vina
dorso vehentes,
trahunt
;
agmen
quoddam famulorum
illis
cu.=todiae et securitatis
causa secum
simulac vero circa vesperam in stabulum venerint, preliosorumornamentorum

detrahitur,
vestiumque pictarum apparatus

nil nisi vibices et livida
jamque
:
lassi et
ornni comitatu nudati
plagarum vestigia ostentant

nihil
Ita qui in
hoc
mundo
auro et se-
rico nituerunt.obitiis
extrema vespera irruente,

sibi
habent praeter vibices et cicatrices
peccatorura per abusum divitiarum
impressas.
Shakspeare has the same thought
" If thou art rich, thou art poor,
For
like
an ass whose back with ingots bows,

but a journey,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches And death unloads thee."
* There were some in Augustine's time that took all this to the letter, but he has more doubts and misgivings {De Gen. ad Lit.,\. 8, c. 6) Sed quomodo intelligenda sit ilia flamma inferni, ille sinus Abrahae, ilia lingua divitis, ille digitus pauperis, ilia sitis tormenti, illastilla refrigerii,vix fortasse a, mansuetfe, quaerentibus, ii contentiose autem
:
certantibus
iiteraliy.
nunquam,
invenitur.
Tertullian (Z)e
Animd,c.
7)
has of course taken
it ail
356
aororavated

by the comparison which they
will continually be
making
hell,''
of their
lost estate to return

;
with the blessedness of the faithful.
But
or " in
it
he that had that gorgeous funeral

;
is
now "in
Hades"
rather
for as ^'Ahrahani's losovi" is not

is
heaven, though
to issue in
it,
will issue in
heaven, so neither
Hades
''hell,'^
though
fire,
when
proper
death and Hades shall be cast into the lake of

hell.
which
is
the
(Rev. xx. 14.)
It is
the place of painful restraint,*
where
the souls of the wicked are reserved to the judgment of the great day
it is
" the deep" whither the devils prayed that they might not be sent
to be
tormented before their time, (Luke
viii.
31,)
for as that other
blessed place has a foretaste of heaven, so has this place a foretaste of

hell
;
Dives being there
is
its
" in tormeyits," stripped of

satisfaction
;
all
wherein his
soul delighted and found
his purple robe has

it,
become a
garment of
fire ;f
as he himself describes
he
is
" tormented in this
jlamey For a while we may
believe that he found
it
impossible to realize his

;
present position, to connect his present self with his past
all for
a while
some fearful dream. But when at length he had convinced himself that it was not indeed this dream, but an awaking, and would take the measure of his actual condition, then, and that he might so do, " he lifted up his eyes, and seeth Abraham afar
may
have seemed
to
him only
as
off,
and Lazarus
said, Father
in his hosom."
(Isai. Ixv.
13, 14.)
^'
And
he cried
and
Abraham,"
still
clinging to the hope that his descent

profit
from Abraham, his fleshly privileges, will
would plead
this
that he has
Abraham
to his father,
which made
is
his sin so great, his fall so
him something he it was indeed This, which was deep.

:
though
once his glory,
now
the very stress of his guilt.
That
he, a son of
Abraham, the man of that liberal hand and princely heart, the man in whom, as the head of their great family, every Jew was reminded of his
kinship with every other, of the one blood in their veins, of the one hope
in
God which ennobled
then*
all
from the
least to the greatest,
should
have so sinned against the mighty privileges of

have so denied through his
life, all
his condition, should
was meant
of torment.
to
teach him,
it
was
this
which the name "son of Abraham" which had brought him to that place
the relationship, for he addresses
Nor
does
Abraham deny
him
not as a stranger but a son, yet thus, in the very allowance of the
relationship, coupled with the refusal of the request, rings the knell of
his latest hope.
Poor and
infinitely slight
was the
best alleviation
which
^vXaKh
(1 Pet.
iii.
18) =al3vacros. (Luke

c. 6)
:
viii.
31.)
:
Successit ignis purpursD et bysso
eft.
tunici arJebat,
qui se exspoliare non poterat.

he had looked
for,
3Q7
!
a drop of water on
is
his fiery
tongue
So shrunken
far
are his desires, so low

tures to entertain.*
the highest hope which even he himself ven-
Nothing could have marked so strongly how
he has
fall.
fallen,
how conscious he has himself become
of the depth of his
In this prayer of the rich

in Scripture,
man we have
the only invocation of saints
and certainly not a very encouraging one.

he will know nothing
is
He
can speak
is
of ^'father Ahrahairi'^ and Father, of
his "father^s house," but there
another
Prodigal
faith
whom
:
the Father whom the

is
had found.
the prophet
For he
as far as heaven
from
hell,
from the
of
" Doubtless thou art our Father, though
Abraham be
igno-
rant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not."
And
the pity which he
refused to show, he fails to obtain.

beatitude, " Blessed are the
We
have here the reverse of the
With what measure he meted,
which he denied, issue in Here is one who has not obeyed the admonition of the preceding parable,
mercy." him again. The crumbs the drop of water which is denied to him.f
merciful, for they shall obtain
it is
measured
to
who has
not
made
friends of the
mammon
him
of unrighteousness, and
into everlasting habita-
now
yet
that he has failed, has
none
to receive
tions.
it
That Abraham's reply contains a refusal of his petition is clear; is not so certain what exact meaning we shall attribute to his
in thy life-time receivedst thy
words: " Thou
two explanations;
good things,"
thee,
the
to signify,
good things." There are and the commonest one would make "thy temporal felicities these, which were goods to
first
;
which thou esteemedst the

of no other, thou receivedst
;
best
and highest goods, and wouldst
know
this
:
and Abraham's reply would then be

but now,
" Son, thou hadst thy choice, the things eternal or the things tem;
poral, this life or that
thou didst choose that
when
that is
run through,
it is
idle to think of altering

life
thy choice, and having even

that
the slightest portion in this
also."
to
But the other explanation

for
would make " thy good things"

which
in
be good actions or good qualities,
some small measure Dives possessed, and
which he received
words of Bishop
in this life his reward, I cannot give better than in the
Sanderson.:}:
The answer
of
in
Abraham was
thee,
as though he had said,
"If
thou hadst anything good

in earth already,
remember thou
hast had thy reward
and now there remaineth
for thee nothing but the full

:
punishment of thine ungodliness there in hell but as for Lazarus he hath had the chastisement of his infirmities [his ' evil things'] on earth already,
*
Augustine
Superbus temporis, mendicus
inferni.
t Augustine
Desideravit guttam, qui non dedit

in
micam
a thought which makes
Gregory the Great exclaim (Horn. 40

Dei
!
Evang.)
Oh
quanta est subtiiitas judiciorum.
And
Bengel observes, Lingua,
maxime
pecca.rat.
In a sermon on Ahab's repentance (1 Kin. xxi. 29).
368
and now remaineth
here in heaven."

him nothing but the full reward of his godliness Presently before he has said, " For as God rewardetb
for
those few good things that are in evil

for
men
with these temporal benefits,
yet in his justice he reserveth eternal danmation, as the due wages, by that justice, of their graceless impenitency, so he punishetb
those remnants of sin that are in godly n>en with these temporal
tions, for
afflic-
whom
mercy he reserveth eternal salvation, as the due wages, yet by that mercy only, of their faith and repentance and holy obedience." This was Chrysostom's view of the passage,* and
yet in his
whom
Gregory the Great, who

words,:^
in general follows
Augustine,f has here an
independent exposition, and
this meaning of the which has certainly something to commend it. But whether there be in the words such a meaning or not, this is in
strongly maintains
them, as in so
many
other passages of Scripture, namely, that the reits evil, the course of ever a sign and augury of ultimate reproba-
ceiving of this world's good without any portion of
an unbroken prosperity,
tion.
is
{Ps. xvii.
;
4; Luke
vi. 24,
25.)
Nor
is
the reason of this hard
to perceive
for there
being in every
man
who
a large admixture of that
dross which has need to be purged out, and which can only be purged
out by the
left
fire
of pain and
affliction,
he
is
not cast into this fire is
with
all his
dross in him, with his evil unpurged, and therefore can
be no partaker of that holiness without which no ntan shall see God. Thus Dives, to his endless loss, had in this life received good things
without any share of
evil.
|[
But now
all is
changed: Lazarus, who
re-
De
Laz., Cone.
3.
He
lays a stress on the dwiâffa, recepisti, not acceprsti
see too Theophylact (in loc.)
Certainly the other five passages of St. Luke, in which

;
ano\ap[iavnv occurs, (vi. 34, twice

in his remark.
1"
xv.
27
xviii.
30
xxiii. 41,)
quite bear
him out
Augustine's exclamation here,
O mundi
bona, apud inferos mala
shows that the

Dives
explanation
X
was
his.
:
Horn. 40 in Evaiig.
Dum
dicitur, Recepisti
bona
in vita,
tudjndicatur
et
iste
boni aliquid habuisse, ex quo in hac viia bona reciperet.
Rursumque, dum de La-
zaro dicitur, quia recepit mala, profecto monstratur et Lazarus habuisse
malum
:
aliquod,
quod purgaretur.
et repulit.
Sed ilium paupertas

1.
afflixit et tersit,
istum abundantia reniuneravit
Cf. Moral.,
5, c. 1.
In like
manner
the Jewish doctors said
Quemad-
modum
in seculo futuro piis rependitur prsemiuni boni operis
etiam levissimi, quod per-
premium cujuscunque levissimi boni opens, a saying which Gfrorer {Urchristenthum, v. 2, p. 171), applies here.
petrarunt, ita in seculo hoc rependitur impiis
^ Augustine
II
Quid
infelicius felicitate
peccantium
Thus
in the .Jewish
affliction
books the scholar of an eminent Rabbi found his master one
day
in
extreme
and pain, and began

Being upbraided
to laugh,
while
all
the other scholars
were weeping round him.

in times past
ills
for this,
he answered, that while he
saw
he
master
in
such uninterrupted prosperity, he had often feared
lest
'was receiving
his portion in this
world
but
now
seeing him so afflicted, he took cour-

ceived in this mortal
life evil
359
things,
is
comforted, but Dives
is
torment-
ed
for
he had sown only
to the flesh,
and therefore, when the order of

has no part, he can only reap
things has
in
commenced
in
which the
flesh
misery and emptiness, in the hungry longing and unsatisfied desire of

Moreover, besides that law of
the soul.
retaliation,
which requires
is
that the
to the
unmerciful should not receive mercy, the fact

conscience of him
brought home
who was once
the rich
evil,
man,
is
that with death the sepain this
ration of the elements of good
and
elements which
gathered
world are
mingled and
*'
in confusion, begins.
Like
to like,
good by na-
tural affinity to good, and evil to evil
and
this separation is
permanent.
a great gulffixed" not a mere handbreadth Jews fabled, but " a great gulf,'" and not merely there, but only, as the an eternal separation, a yawning chasm, too deep to fixed "* there,
Between us and you there
is
^^
be
filled
up, too wide to be bridged over, so that there

to the
is
no passing from
cannot,
one side
other
" They who would pass
neither can they pass to

ter affirmation is easily
from hence to you us that would come from thence." Now, intelligible, for we can quite understand
the lat-
the lost
desiring to pass out of their state of pain to the place of rest and blessedness, but
it
is
not quite so easy to understand the reverse

to
"
they
who
but
would pass from hence
you cannot."
The
desire of passing thither

;
cannot, of course, be for the purpose of changing their condition
they cannot pass, he would say, even

to yield
for a season,
they have no power
even a moment's solace

desire
it.
to
any
that are in that place,
however
they,
they
may
full
Yet here the
difficulty suggests itself.
Can
being
of love, otherwise than greatly desire it?
Nay,
is
not such a
longing implied in the very words of

greatly desire
it,
Abraham?
And
if
they do thus
and yet
it
may
not be, must not this trouble and cast a
shade even upon a heavenly

its
felicity 1
solution
it.
for
all
the answers
A question vvhich must wait for which commonly are given do not
he has yet a request
to that to
reach
But though repulsed

others.
If
for himself,
urge for
at least
Abraham cannot send Lazarus

to
:
world of woe,
he can cause liim

there
is
return to the earth which he has so lately quitted
no such gulf intervening there

send him
to
"
I pray
thee, therefore, father,
that thou wouldst
my
lest
father'' s house, for
I have five
brethren,
that he
may
testify
unto them,
they also come unto this place of torit
ment."
He and
they, Sadducees at heart, though
might be Pharisees
(\Ieuschen's N. T.
age again, and believed that his good things were
still
to
come.
ex Talm., Must., p. 66.) * Augustine {Ad Evod., Ep. 164)
Hiatus
non
solilm est,
verum etiam
fir-
matus
est.
370
in
'

at that
it
name, perhaps oftentimes had mocked together,

;*
unseen world
which now he was finding so fearful a reality would now desire by Lazarus to warn them.
"testify," to speak, that
his brethren's good,
is,
and that
was such, he
Lazarus
will be able to
of things which he has seen.j- In this anxiety for
he, who hitherto had been merely selfish, exsome have found the evidence of a better mind beginning, and the proof that suffering was already doing its work in him, was awakening in him the slumbering germ of good.:}: With this view, were it the
which
presses,
right one,
would of necessity be connected

and temporary
his
own
ultimate restoration,
eter-
and the whole doctrine of future suffering not being vindicative and
nal, but corrective
:
a doctrine which will always find

insight into the evil of sin,
life
;
favour with
all
those
who have no deep

it
no
earnest view of the task and responsibilities of

too often, they are bribed to hold
especially when, as
by a personal
interest,
by a lurking
consciousness that they themselves are not earnestly striving to enter at

the strait gate, that their
own
standing in Christ
is
insecure or none.
But the
rich
man's request grows out of another
root.
There
lies in
it
a secret justifying of himself, and accusing of God.
What
a bitter re:
proach against God and against the old economy

only
I
is
here involved
" If
had been
sufficiently
warned, if only God had given
me
sufficient-
ly clear evidence of these things, of the need of repentance, of this place

life, I had never come hither. But was not duly warned, let at least my brethren be so." Abraham's answer is brief and almost stern ; rebuking, as was fit, " They are warned this evil thought of his heart they have enough to They keep them from your place of torment, if only they will use it. have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." Our Lord then clear-
as the goal of a sensual worldly

I
though
ly did not see an entire keeping back of the doctrine of
life
eternal and
to
an
after retribution in the Pentateuch, but to hear
Moses was
hear of
these things; as elsewhere
more
at length
he showed. (Matt.
xxii. 31,
32.)
ther
But the suppliant
will not so easily be put to silence.
Abraham,
hut if one went unto them
from
the
" Nay, fadead they will repent."

de Pro-
* Augustine {Serm. 41)
Non
dubito quia
cum
ipsis fratribus suis loquens
phetis monentibu3 bona, prohibentibus mala, terrentibus de tormentis futuris, et futura
praemia promittentibus, irridebat base omnia, dicens
cum
1
fratribus suis,
.
.
Quae vita post

reversus audi-
mortem
tus est
?
quae rnemoria putredinis
qui sensus cineris
quis inde
t In the legend of Er the Pamphylian (Plato's Rep.,
1.
10,
c.
13), he
is
to
return
from the place where souls are judged,
!xyyc\ov avQ^xiiruH ycviaOai tmv Ikci, of the great-
ness of the rewards of the just, the drcadfulness of the

t
doom
of sinners.
Aquinas (Sum. Theol.,

this verse gives
?
Siipp. ad. 3"" part., qu. 98, art. 4)

:
has a discussion to
which
qui
occasion
Utruin daninati
in inferno vellent alios esse
damnatos,
non sunt damnati
He
determines, despite this passage, that they would.

As
it is
37J
true of the faithful that their works do follow Ihem, and that their
is
temper here
their
temper
in
heaven, so not less does this man's eon-
tempt of God's word, which he showed on earth, following him beyond

the grave ;* that
Word
cannot suffice to save

to
men
they must have
something else
in hell that
to lead
them
repentance.
We have
here re-appearing
"Show
us a sign that
on the
lips
of the Pharisees on earth.
they would believe, signs

(Isai. viii. 19, 20.)
we may believe," which was so often They believe, or at least think and portents, but will not believe God's Word.
!
vain expectation
for in the
words of Abraham,
" If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
considered.
will not
These words demand to be accurately though one rose from the dead." Dives had said, " they will repent; " Abraham replies, they
the
from
even " be persuaded." Dives had said, " if one loent unto them dead ;" Abraham, with a prophetic glance at the world's unbe-
lief in far greater matter,
makes answer, " No, not

to
if
one rose
from
the
dead."
He
in fact is
saying
him, "
far greater act than

:
you de-
mand would
be ineffectual for producing a far slighter effect
pose that wicked
men would
repent on the return of a spirit
I tell
you supyou
gives us
they would not even be persuaded by the rising of one from the dead.""}"
This reply of Abraham's

into the nature of faith, that
is
most weighty,
for the insight
it
it is
a moral act, an act of the will and the
affections no less than of the understanding,
something therefore which
cannot be forced by signs and miracles
for
where there
is
a determined
alienation of the will and affections from the truth, no impression
which
these miracles will make, even if they be allowed to be genuine, will be
more than transitory. Nor will there fail always to be a loophole someand this is well, or we where or other, by which unbelief can escape should have in the Church the faith of devils, who believe and tremble. AVhen the historical Lazarus was raised from the dead, the Pharisees
;:j:
were not by
(John
xi.
this
miracle persuaded of the divine mission and authority

itself.
of Christ, and yet they did not deny the reality of the miracle
47
xii.
10.)
greater too than Lazarus has returned from
* Bengel
t
Vilipendium Scripturae miser,
relicto luxu,
secum
intulit in inferno.
It is
a pityjhat
we have
not given the
Uv rn
of ver. 31, " if one," as

:
we have
in the re;
rightly
done in the verse preceding.
Observe the change of words
TropevBrj
quest of Dives; dvaoTrj in the reply of

in the reply.
t
Abraham
dnd
vf/tpJi/
in the request
Ik vcKpCii/
When
for instance
Spinoza declared himself ready to renounce his system and

only he were convinced of the truth of the raising of the
to
become a
Christian,
if
historical Lazarus,
he
knew
very well that in his sense of the word convince, and with
the kind of evidence thut he
would have acquired,
it
was impossible
to satisfy his de-
mand.
(See Bayle, Diction., Art. Spinoze, note r.)
372
the World of spirits
titudes

;
nay, has risen from the dead
and yet what mulit
who acknowledge
at all
the fact, and acknowledge
as setting a seal
to all his
claims to be heard and obeyed, yet are not brought by this ac-
knowledgment
nearer
to
repentance and the obedience of

exactlj'- in the spirit
faith.
And
sal to
it is
very observable, how
of Abraham's refu-
send Lazarus, the Lord himself acted after his resurrection.
He
showed
himself, not to the Pharisees, not to his enemies, " not to all the
people, but unto witnesses chosen before of
own
disciples alone.
It
was
God," (Acts judgment on the others,
x.
41,) to his
that no sign
it
should be given them but the sign of the prophet Jonah, yet
was a
mercy
had
also, for
they would not have been persuaded, even by one that
risen
from the dead.
At
the
same time
it
is
not to be denied that
in Christ's resurrection there
was a
satisfaction of the longing of
man's
heart, that one should return from the world
beyond the grave, and give
assurance of the reality of that world,

not satisfy, but which Christ did,
a longing which Abraham could

died and rose again, and ap-
when he
peared unto men, having the keys of death and of Hades.*

It
remains only
to
give a slight sketch of their interpretation,
who
alle-
maintain
gorical
;
that, besides its literal
meaning, the parable has also an

find this only
though of these some

every one
to
by the way, and as some-
thing merely subordinate, an interpretation which they throw out and
leave
it
to
allow
it
what value he chooses: while others make

it
the chief moral of the parable, and affirm that
pose of the Lord to set forth the relations between
was the primary purJew and Gentile.

Jewish nation clad
Dives then, as already has been

in the purple of the king,
said, represents the
and the
fine linen of the priest f
the
kingdom
* Augustine {Enarr. in Ps.

voluisti
cxlvii. 14)
Domine,
gratias misericordise
tuae
mod,
ut aliquis ab inferis surgeret, et ipse aliquis
non quicumque, sed Veritas

(p.
surrexit ab inferis.
In Plato's legend of the revenant, alluded to already,
370, note,)
there
is
a remarkable witness for this craving in the
mind of man,
satisfaction
is
that he
who
gives
assurance of the reality of the things after death should have himself returned from the
world of
spirits,
longing that for us has found
its
in
the resurrection
of Christ.
The same
reappears in that, which however
plainly but
an imitation of
Plato's narrative, the story of Thespesius in Plutarch's essay,
De
sera
Numinis
vin-
dictd.
1.
t Augustine {QucEst. Evang.,
2, qu. 38)
In Divite intelligantur superbi Judapo. .

.
rum, ignorantes Dei
justitiatn, et
suam
volentes constituere
Epulatio spiendida,
eft.,
jactantia legis est, in qu&, gloriabantur plus ad
pompam
relalionis abutentes
qu^m
ad necessitatem salulis utentes.
Compare Gregory
the Great (f/om.

:
40 in Evang.:
iste
and Moral.,
1.
25,
c.
13) and
II.
de Sto Victore {Annott. in Luc.)
Dives
Judai-
cum populum
iX'^"
'"'"'
designat, qui cultum vitae exterius habuit, et acceptse
legis deliciis usiis
est ad nitorem,
non ad
utilitatem.
Theophylact:
Jlop'bipav KaXfiiaaov IvciiivTo, [iaaiXdav

to the daily sacrifice.
icpo)aufni>.
He
refers the faring
sumptuously every day

of priests or royal priesthood.*
373
They
fared sumptuously every day,"they

:
were amply furnished with all spiritual blessings " enriched," as Theophylact describes it, "with all knowledge and wisdom, and with the precious oracles of God." They were the vineyard which the Lord had
planted, and of
to
my
to
vineyard, that
which he could say, " What could have been done more I have not done in it ?" (Isai. v. 2, 4.) They were
the high places of the earth,
the glory, and the covenants,
the people
and
whom he had made to ride on whom pertained " the adoption, and
these things
and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises."
But
all
were given them, not
that they
might make their
boast of them, and rest there, comparing themselves for self-exaltation
with the heathen round them,
who were
perishing without the know-
ledge of God, but that they might spread around them the true faith and knowledge of God. Yet they did not so ; " Behold," said St. Paul, " thou
art called a
Jew, and
his will,
restest in the law,
and makest thy boast of God,
and knowest
and approvest the things that are more excellent,

darkness." But meanwhile,
to scatter the
being instructed out of the law, and ait confident that thou thyself art a
guide of the blind, a light of them that are
in
though they thus boasted, they did nothing effectual

ness of the heathen
;
dark-
for
;
they had forsaken their true position, misunder-
stood their true glory
and
this talent
of talents, the knowledge of the
true God, these privileges, and this election, they had turned into a selfish thing.
For they counted

of,
that
God had
blessed
;
them aZone of
all
people, instead
blessing, of
as
was
the truth, above all people
they stopped the
which they should have been the channel, and through them he was pi'esented the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles to the Gentiles under a false character and in an unworthy light.f
Lazarus the beggar ^ lay

gate,
at their
gate covered with sores
at the
and without
it,
for the Gentiles
were "
aliens from the
common-
wealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise

of sores, for their sins and their miseries were
the Gentile world are enumerated by St. Paul,
the term
vvill
:"fuU
sores of
infinite.
These
include, besides the sins, the
23-32 ; though penal miseries which were

i.
Rom.
In
modem
times Lomeier has wrought out this view at length, Ohss. Analytico-Didact.
ad Luc.
for
is in this
xvi. p. 91, seq.
See
Von Meyer's
Blatter fUr hOhere Wahreit,

spirit
v. 6, p.
88,
It
an exposition not
* Baai\etov
historically the
same, but agreeing with the
of this one.
sense also that Swedenborg understands the parable.

lepaTevfta,
:
Exod.
xix. 6
compare
1 Pet.
ii.
9.
t H. de Sto Victore
Non ad
caritatem sed ad elationem doctrinam legis habuit.

refusal of the
And
X
Gregory {Horn. 40) explains the
crumbs
Gentiles ad cognitionera
legis, superbi Judaei
non admittebant.
TLevrn dd<i}v 'xapiTiav Kai
<jo<pias.
Theophylact
374

sins.
consequent on those
But these
i.
sores, these "
wounds and bruises

licked them.
and putrifying sores,"
(Isai.
6,)
were neither
closed, nor bound, nor
mollified with ointment, so that the dogs
came and
is
Here,
as
must so
often happen, there
is
a question whether this last circum-
stance has any distinct signification, or

picture.
added only
to
complete the
Are there
its
indicated
here the slight and miserable assuage-
ments of
wants and woes,
the
wretched medicine
for its hurts,
which the heathen world derived from its poets and philosophers and legislators, as Lomeier proposes ? or is it meant that even in this depth
of man's misery, nature spake to him, in faint and feeble accents, of
mercy and
love, (Acts xiv.
17,)
and evidently sympathized with man,

?
so that he found comfort in her
sympathy
But the other circumstance

to
has plainly a meaning, namely, that the beggar desired

the
be fed from
crumbs
that
fell
from the rich man's table.
It
cannot, indeed, be
said that the Gentiles directly desired the satisfaction of their spiritual
hunger from the Jews,

not in
for
we know
this,
from one cause or other, was
a very great degree the case; though indeed the spread of Juit,
daism, and the inclination which existed to embrace
is
more than
emperors.*
once noted by the
Roman
writers in the times of the
first
But the yearning of their souls after something better and truer than aught which they possessed, was, in fact, a yearning after that which the Jew did possess, and which, had he been faithful to his privileges and his position, he would certainly have imparted. Christ was " the
Desire of
acre
all nations ;"
every yearning after deliverance from the bondso that implicitly and un-
of sin and corruption, which found utterance in the heart of any

;
heathen, was in truth a yearning after him
consciously the heathen was desiring to be fed from the Jews' table, desiring from thence an alleviation of his wants, but desiring
it
in vain.
The dying
find their
tile
of Lazarus, and his reception into Abraham's bosom, will

in the abolition of that
answer
economy under which
the
Gen-
was an outcast from
the covenant, and in his subsequent entrance
into all the
immunities and
consolations of the
kingdom of God
" which in time past were not a people, but are
now
the people of God,

(1 Pet.
i.
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
10; Ephes. ii. 11-13.) But Dives dies also, the Jewish economy and now Dives is in torments, " in heU?^' surely also comes to an end, not too strong a phrase to describe the misery and despair, the madness
and blindness and astonishment of heart, which are the portion of a people, that having once known God, fall from that knowledge, of an
apostate and God-abandoned people.
The fundamental
idea of hell
is
* See Neander's History of the Church,
v. 1, p.
84, (English tranal.)

exclusion from the presence of
portion of that people upon
375
was the
his-
God
and
his
this utter exclusion

to the
whom
wrath came
uttermost.
Who
can read the history of the

of the time
latter
days of the Jewish nation, an
tory which has been providentially preserved to us in

details,
some of
its
minutest
when
fire
that nation
seemed
its'
to
realize the fable of the

its
scorpion girdled with

feel that all
and fixing
sting in
own
body, and not

?
which really constitutes
hell
was already
there
Nay, and
fall
ever since have they not been "

that sure Avord of prophecy,
torments?"
foretells their
In proof let us turn to
which
doom should they

;
away, as they have fallen away, from their God

xxvi. 14-39, or Deut. xxviii. 15-68,
for instance, to
Lev.
or call to
mind the Lord's words
which speak of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, which shall be their portion, when they see the despised Gentiles coming from the east and the west, from the north and from the south, and sitting down in the kingdom
of God, while they themselves are thrust out.*
(Luke
xiii.
28-30.)
some consolation from Lazarus, whom before he despised, so the Jew is looking for the assuagement of his miseries through some bettering of his outward estate, some relaxation of severBut
as Dives looked for
ities
imposed
upon him,
things which he looks

if
some
improvement of
his
civil
condition,
for
from the kingdoms of the world, and which
they gave him, would be but as a drop of water on the tongue.

not that the wrath of
this is
He
The
knows
God does
is
in truth constitute his
misery
and so long as
alleviation
unremoved, he
is
incapable of true comfort.

it
which he craves
not given,
were
in vain to give
it
the
one true alleviation would be that he should be himself received into the
kingdom of God,
to
that he should bewail his guilt,
and look on him
whom
he pierced, and mourn because of him: then consolations would abound
him
but without
this,
everything else
is
is
but as the drop of water on the
fiery tongue.
That there
no allusion
in the parable to
any future time,

his
when
the great gulf of unbelief
which now separates the Jew from
blessings shall be filled up, makes nothing against this interpretation since exactly the same argument might be applied, and we know incorrectly, to call in question the ordinary explanation of the parable of the
Wicked Husbandmen
stored to
its first
nothing
is
there said of the vineyard being rewill
cultivators,
which yet we know
one day be the case.
By
scheme
the five brethren of Dives will be set forth to us according to this

all
who
hereafter, in a like condition
and with like advantages,
same abuse of their spiritual privileges. The Gentile Church is in one sense Lazarus brought into Abraham's bosom ; but when it sins as the Jewish Church did before it, glorying in its gifts, but
are tempted to the
* Theophylact: 'E/tj
<^Xoyi KaraKoiovTai Tov (^QSvov,
376
not using
UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS.
them
for the calling out of the spiritual life of
men, contented
to see in its
its
very bosom a population that are outcast, save in name, from

its
privileges and blessings, and to see beyond
limits millions of hea.
thens to
whom
it
has
little
or no care to impart the knowledge of Christ

in so
and of
his salvation,
then
is
far as
it
thus sins,
it
is
only too like
the five brethren of Dives, who*<are in danger of coming with him, and
for sins similar to his, to this place of torment.
that, before
Nor
are
we
to
imagine
its
judgment
it
executed upon a Church thus forgetful of
high calling,
summonses,
dream of security by any startling any novel signs and wonders, any new revelation, any
will be roused
from
its
Lazarus
remind
it
it
rising from the dead
and bidding
its
it
to repent.
It
of
its
duty,
has enough to
it
has
its
deposit of truth,
its
talent
wherewith
part of
was bidden
to trade
till
Lord's return.
So
that the latter
the parable, thus contemplated, speaks to us Gentiles in the very spirit
of those awful words which St. Paul addressed to the Gentile converts at Rome " Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God on them
:
which
fell
;
severity, but towards thee goodness, if thou
continue in his
xi. 22.)
goodness
otherwise thou also shalt be cut off."
(Rom.
PARABLE
XXYII.
Luke
xvii.
7-10.
Some
interpreters find
a connexion between this parable and the
dis-
course which precedes it, while others affirm that no such can be traced, that the parable must be explained without any reference to the sayTheophylact suping concerning faith which goes immediately before.
poses this to be the link between the parable and the preceding verse
the Lord had there declared the great things which a living faith would
enable his disciples to perform

but then,
lest these
how they should
remove mountains
great things which were in the power of their faith

to
fall into
should cause them

for the
a snare of pride, the parable was spoken
purpose of keeping them humble.*

Petierant Apostoli adjungi sibi
Augustine confesses the

donum
in
confidentiae,
dif.
* So Cajetan
quod
et eis col-
latum
intelligitur.
Et quoniam etiam superbia bonis operibus
insidiatur ut pereant,
ideo Jesus adjungit parabolam conservativam

extollantur.
eorum
vera recognitione auimet, ne
377
ficulty of tracing the connexion, and has a very singular explanation of
the whole parable, which
must be content
to refer to,* as
it
would take
up considerable space to do it justice. Olshausen gives this explanation The apostles by that account which went before of the hindrances
:
they would meet

they then seemed
in their
to
work, (ver.
1, 2,)
of the hard duties, hard as

.'5,
them, which were required of them, (ver.
4,)
had
a longing awakened in them after a speedier reward.

fore
The Lord
;
there-
would
set before
them
their true relation to
him
that their work, that they
difficult or
not,
welcome
but
or otherwise,
must be done
him.
to
were
not their own, but his, and to labour
for
If they found their la-
bour a delight, well
if not, still it
was
be done.
toil
Neither were
they to look for their reward and release from

to
at
once,f but rather
take example of the servant,

all
who though he had been

^^
strenuously
yet not
labouring
the less
also.
the day in the field,
ploughing or feeding
to
cattle,''^
when he returned home had

is
resume
his labours in the
house
Such
his explanation,
and no doubt he here asserts an imporparable

;
tant truth, and one found
in the
but to the connexion, as he
traces
it,
there
is
this
objection, that the request,

to
"Lord, increase our

finds in
it
;.
faith," does not
seem
convey any such meaning as he

if those
there
is
no appearance as
who made
to
it
were desirous of escap-
ing a dispensation committed to them, or snatching prematurely at a re-
ward.
ion
that
Other expositors have neglected

teaches generally
seek any immediate connex-
between the parable and the context

it
in
which
it
is
found, affirming
all we can we must retain all
how God
this,
is
debtor to no man, that

all
do
the
is
of duty, nothing of merit, and that in
our work
acknowledgment of
;
and carefully guard against
vainglory
and elation of heart
God
out of the
to
;
were bound
of that
all ?
we must be deeply humbled before thought that, did we do all, we should only do what we and how then must it be, when we fall so infinitely short
how
rather
different
if
I
But altogether
formally proposed,
from any of these interpretations
is
that first
:}:
mistake not, by Grotius, and which
Venema
has taken up and strengthened with additional arguments and

tions.
illustra-
The
parable, they say,
is
not
meant
to
represent at
all
the stand-
ing of the faithful under the
new
covenant, "the perfect law of liberty,"
but the merely servile standing of the

in this
Jew under
preceding.
the old, and
it
grew
had.
manner out of
the discourse
The
disciples
* Quast. Evang.,
1.
2, c. 39.
Maldonatus,
who
denies that there
is
any connexion,,
thinks Augustine's very forced and unnatural, t Eidew, (ver. 7.)

t
Diss. Sac
p.
262, seq.
25
378
asked
for increase
of
faith.
The Lord
in
answer would teach them the
necessity and transcendent value of that gift for which they were asking,
would magnify
its
value, showing
them how
all
outward works
done without
this living principle
of free and joyful obedience, such as for

nation were content with, were merely
the most part the

servile,
men of their own
and were justly recompensed with a merely servile reward,
that in those
God could take no

;
pleasure, and for
owed no thanks
the servants
who
did
them counted that he them were after all unprofitable
and of no account
in his sight.
The arguments of Grotius and Venema are mainly these. They object to the common interpretation, that it sets forth in a wrong aspect the relations which exist between Christ and his people. They ask. Is it likely that the gracious Lord who in another place said, *' Henceforth
I
call
you not servants,

to
but
have called you friends," would here
wish
bring forward in so strong a light the service done to him as one

servile,
merely
he,
and
for
which he would render them no thanks

into the
spirit
would
who ever sought

relation to
to lead his disciples
recognition of their
filial
God, that they had received not the

they say, in this
of bondage
but of adoption, here throw them back so strongly on their servile relation ?
^'
It
was
not,
spirit that
he spake those words,

shall find
Blessed are those servants,

:
whom
the lord
when he cometh
watching
"them
xiisit
verily,
to
say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and
make
(Luke
down
meat, and will come forth and serve them."
2X-)
On
the other hand the parable does, they affirm, exactly set
least of the
forth the relation of the Jews, at
greater part of them, to

if
God.
They were
hired
to
do a certain work, which

:
they did, they
were, like servants, free from stripes

they ate and drank
they had too their stipend
they received
their earthly reward.
But going no
of
faith,
further than this bare fulfilling of the things expressly enjoined* them, and
fulfilling
them without
love, without zeal, without the
filial spirit
* Exactly the same stress which they would here lay on ra fiiara^xdivTa is laid by Origen {In Rom^, L 3), although his purpose, as will be seen, is different Donee quis hoc facit tantum quod debet, t. e.,ea qujE praecepla sunt, inutilis servusest. (Luc. xvii. 10.) Si autem addas aliquid pracceptis, tunc non jam inutilis servus eris, sed dicetur ad te:
:
Euge
serve bone et
fidelis.
(Matt. xxv. 21.)
St.
Bernard too {In Cant., Serm., 11,
c.
2,) without
indeed making Origen's dangerous use of the passage, and lowering the
it
standard of piety for the ninety-nine, in the hope of exalting

the
i.
for the one,
has implicitly
same explanation of
and
delight,
the passage as that
mentioned
in the text.
Expounding Cant,
2, he has occaeion to
epeak of a service, rendered indeed, but without joy and alacin Evangelio qui
rity
and ends thus: Denique
hoc soliim, quod facere de:
bet, facit, servus inutilis reputatur.
Mandata
Ut
igitur
forsan
utcumque adimpleo
sed
anima
mea
sicut terra sine aquQ. in iUis.
holocaustum
meum
pingue
fiat,
osculetur
me, quxso, osculo
oris sui.
contented
to stop short
379
when they had
just done so
much
as
would enathe
ble them, as they hoped, to escape punishment, going through their

in this
temper, ihey were " unprofitable servants," in
whom
work Lord
fa-
could take no pleasure, and
who could
is
look for no furtlier
marks of
vour
at his
hands.*
It is
not to be denied that there
something attractive
;
in this expoit
sition, f
or that
it is
worthy of respectful consideration
but yet
might
it.
be fairly replied in this
way
to the
arguments of those
to,
that uphold
The
present parable need not be opposed
but rather should be bal-
anced with, that other saying of the Lord's (Luke
should be considered
clarations.
as supplying the
xii. 37) quoted above, counterweight of all such de;
This
is is
the
not said that this
the
way God 7nighi deal for we may observe, it is way he will deal, since rather that other is the
bear himself towards his faithful serto the scrictness of justo the
is
manner
vants
;
in
which he
will actually
the one relation
that
which according
is
tice he
might assume, the other
that
to
which according
riches of
to
his
grace he will assume.
We,
keep us humble, are evermore might put our relation

to
it
acknowledge that upon

having,
at the
that footing he
this
him,
same time
loc.)
is
assurance, that so long as
we
put
upon
Grotius (in
especially rich in materials in support of this interpretation of
the parable.
From Maimonides
:
he quotes a Jewish proverb, Ei datur praemium qui

viii.)
quid injussus facit dience of the
and from Chrysostom (In Eorn.

the Christian
:
a passage contrasting the obe-
Jew and
KaftTi/oi 61 fo/Sto Tijiwpiai Tcavra eirparTov dyojxci/ot,

rtj
ol Si TTvcvuariKol
iirtdvijia Kai n6do),Kal
tovto SriXovai
KOi
vTTcp0aii>civ
rii
ETrirdy/iura.
We
5'Aep-
might compare, especially with that Jewish proverb, one of the Similitudes in the
Acrrfof Hernias,
(1.
3, sim. 5,)
which
is
briefly
this:
An
householder planted a vine-
yard, and going from home,
left
his servant the task of tying the vines to their supports,

it
and no more
yard,
if also
but the servant having finished this task, thought

to
would
profit the
vineit
he were
weed
it
and dig
it,
which he did
and the master found

his servant, because he
in
high order and beauty on his return.

thus done more than
ship,
Well pleased with
had
was enjoined him, he determined

fellow-heir with his
to give
him
the adoption of son-
and
to
make him
own
son.
It is true that
Hermas makes an
1.
application of the similitude different from
what one would expect, and not bearing upon

Seneca (De Benef.,
:
our parable, but yet the passage
is
in itself remarkable.
3, c.
18-28) treats an interesting question which bears on the present subject

ficium dare
praestatur
An
bene-
domino servus
possit
which he answers
in
the affirmative:
Quamdiu
quod k servis exigi solet [rh SiaraÔivra] ministerium est,ubi plus qutim quod
:
servo necesse est, beneficium

. . .
ubi in affectum amici transit, desinit vocari ministerium.
Quicquid est quod
servilis officii
formulam excedit, quod non ex imperio sed
et
voluntate praestatur, beneficium est. t It

is
He
has
much more on
qui,
the
same
subject.
Wetstein's also
:
Sunt nimirum
servi qui serviunt serviliter,

filii
hoc
est, qui nil
nisi jussi faciunt
alii
serviunt liberaliter, ut
non exspectato mandate, ex gene-
rosa et nobili indole, sponte et injussi ea faciunt, quee utilia et
Domino
placitura credunt.
lUos Christus hie perstringit et vituperat eo fine ut discipulos ad altiorem gradum perducat.
380
that footing, he
fiivours
will not
;
for so long,
we
are capable of
It 'is
receiving his
without being corrupted by them.
only
to the
humble,
to
the self-abased before God, that he can give grace, for wliere this humility
is not, it is
certain that, as the

it,
unclean vessel will altogether taint
the wine poured into
so the gifts of
God
will be perverted to spiritual
wickednesses, more dangerous and more deadly than the natural corruptions of man's heart.
And
although, doubtless, the relation of the
Christian to his Lord
is set
forth here
under somewhat a severer * aspect

that this side of the truth, as
than
is
usual under the
New
Covenant, yet the experience of every

it is
heart will bear witness
how needful
to
well as the other, should be set out,

to
that in hours
when we
are tempted
feel that
draw back,
is
to
shun and
evade our tasks, we should then
necessity
laid
upon
that
us,
that indeed while

:
we
do them willingly,
we
do them also the most acceptably
yet whether willingly or not, they
must be done,
will,
we
are servants
for
who
that
are not to question our Master's
but
to
do
it.
Good
us
it
is
we
should have the check of
considerations like these upon us in such moments, and should thus be
kept in the
way
:
of duty,
till
the time of a
more
joyful and childlike obedilove,
ence again comes round.

true guardian
This fear does not exclude
but
is
;]"
its
they mutually uphold and support one another
for
our hearts, while yet they are not made perfect

that they
love.
in love, are not
such
can be presented with motives drawn on/y from gratitude and
dience,
These indeed, must ever be the chief and prominent motive to obe(Rom. xii. 1,) and so long as they prove sufficient, the others will
;
not appear
but
it is
well for us that behind these, there should be other
sterner and severer
themselves
needed.
felt,
summonses to duty, ready to come forward and make when our evil and our corruption causes them to be
it,
Well
for us, too, is
that while the

it,
Lord
is
pleased gracious-
ly to accept our
it is
work and
to
reward
we
should ever be reminded that

re-
an act of his free grace, of his unmerited mercy, by which our
lation to
him has been put upon
this footing.
it
For there
is
also another
footing (that of the parable)
upon which
not, yet
might have been put,

put
it,
yea,
upon which, though he does

*
we must evermore
it
so far at
At
the
same
it
time, our translation
makes
'"
need, while
has rendered
yci
x'''P"'
^-
wear even a severer aspect tlian is " Doth he thank that servant ?" thus
servant's work.
It
se'eming to cut off any recognition at
all
of the
would be
it,
better,
" Doth he count himself especially beholden to that servant 1" as Weisse gives
er
Weiss
dem Knecht besondern Dank

t Guerricus (Bernardi Oper.,
So Heb.
xii.
28,
c'x'^t'cv x'tp'",
which should be
translated, " Let us have the thankfulness."

v. 2, p.
See Tittman's
Si/non'i;7ns, s. v. dxpctoi.
:
1028, ed. Bened.,)

;
Neque enim timer

;
iste
quern
amor castum
facit,
;
gaudium
toUit, sed custodit
non
destruit, sed instruit
non
inamaricat, sed condit
ut tant6 sit durabilius, quanto modestius, tanto verius, quanta
eeverius, tant6 dulcius, quant6 sanctius.
least as
iS
381
needful for the subduing every motion of pride and vain-glory
every
A
temptation to bring in
it
God
as our debtor because of our work,
which, inconceivable as
the matter,
is
must appear when we calmly contemplate

are evermore on the point of doing.*
the
yet what
men
it
more
real difficulty in
parable, as
it
appears
to
me,
is this,
that of the
first
part of
(ver. 7, 8) the purpose seems, to
commend
pa-
tience in the Lord's work,
that
we do
not desire to be dismissed before

;
the time from our labours, or snatch too early at the reward
but rather
take example from the hind,
who only
looks to rest and refresh himself,

his service
:
when
his master has
no further need of
(xi.
that, in the
words
of the son of Sirach

lono- as
20)
we
learn to
wax
old in our work, and so
we
are here, see in one task but a stepping-stone to another.

parable,
Such appears the lesson of the first part of the after we have made some exertion, smaller or
have a claim
to be
that
we do
not,
greater, account that

toil
;
we
exempted henceforth from strenuous
but on the
contrary, ever, as
we have surmounted one

it,
hill
of labour, perceive a
new one
also.
rising above
in the
and gird ourselves

9,
for the
is
surmounting of that
this patient con-
But
second part (ver.
10)
it
no longer
tinuance in well-doing, but humility, that
is
enjoined, the confession that

all
we
are not doing
God
a favour in serving him, but that

is
we can do
value.
is
of merest duty,
to
that our service at best

is,
poor and of
little
suppose, however, the solution
that impatience
under deferred reward,
with the desire
be released from labour, springs from over-estimation
of our work
that
it
while he
who
feels that all
which he has yet done

it
is little,
is all
poor and mean, as he will not count that

to
gives him a
claim henceforward
be exempted from labour, but will rather desire
some new
field
of labour where he
may
approve himself a better servant

it
than he has yet done, so neither will he count that

to consider
gives him a right
God
as his debtor.
root,
The two wrong

actual relation to
it
states of
mind, spring-
ing from the same evil

the learning to
are to be met by the
same remedy, by
is,
know what our
God
that
it is
one
all
of servants
to a
master, and being such,
precludes us alike from
right of claiming release
when we
to,
please, and so also from all right to

that,
extol or exalt ourselves for the
doing of
which by the very laws were great

guilt,
of our condition
we
are bound
which
not to do
but
which
*
to
do
is
no merit.
Ambrose {Exp.
in
Luc,
te
1.
8,c. 32): Agnosce esse te servum plurimis obsequiis

quia
si
.
defceneratum.
Non
te piaeferas,
filius
Dei diceris
agnoscenda gratia, sed non igdebuisti.
noranda natura.
Neque
jactes
bene
.
servisti,
quod facere
Obsequitur
sol,
obtemperat luna, serviunt angeli.
Et nos ergo non h nobis iaudem exigamus, nee
prcEripiamus judicium Dei etpraeveniamus sententiam judicis: sed suo tempori, suo judici reservemus.
382
With regard
remark.
cinct
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

to the actual
words of the parable, there
is
not
much
to
All are aware that the waiting at table with the dress suc-
flerful the
was a mark of servitude,* which to keep in mind makes more woncondescension of the Son of God in his saying, Luke xii. 37, and in his doing, John xiii. 4. With regard to the confession which he puts into the mouthsof his disciples,^ " When ye shall have done all those commanded
you, say,
If.
things which are
We
are nnprofitable servants ;"
we may
truly observe, as
say when they

his conscience
many have observed before, if this have done all, how much more, and with how
when
their consciences bear
to
they are to
far deeper
self-abasement and shame,
them witness, as
must bear witness
every man, that so far from having
done all that was commanded, they have in innumerable things grievously failed and come short of their duty, of what they might and ought
to
have done.
PARABLE
XXVIII.
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

Luke
xviii.
1-8.
This parable
is
addressed to the disciples, and stands, as Theophylact

in closest relation with
and others have noted,

times,
what has gone immediate-
ly before, with the description of the sufferings and distress of the last
when even
the disciples " shall desire to see one of the days of

(xvii. 22.)
the Son of man, and shall not see it."
Then
will be,,ac-
Venema
quotes from Philo (De Vita Contempl.) a passage, concerning the Egyp6i nal KaOcjjivoi toSj
tian Therapeutae, which gives remarkable evidence of this: 'A^woroi

îTCOvioKOVs daiaotv
TOijTO
f
iirrtpcTrjcrui'TCi, it'CKa
tov
ftttSlv
ciS(o\ov e-nt(ppta9at Sov}iUTCpiTnii o';^riâroj cif
rd cvjtT^6aiov.
Augustine
Contra pestem vanse

est quern
glorise diligentissimfe militans.
Bengel
Miser
Dominus servum inutilem
appellat (Matt. xxv. 30), bea^
tusqui se ipse.
Cajetan
turi assent
:
Quod
:
igitur dicitur,
si
Quum
feceritis
omnia, iion ideo
dicitur, t|uod fac-
omnia
sed quod
etiam faciunt omnia, sed quod

;
quum
ut
Ji
merita habuerint
facientium omnia prcecepta, recognoscant se servos inutiles scant minus

facere.
fortiori se
recogno-
quam
inutiles,hoc est debitores et reos multorum,quae debebant seu debent

in her 14th Article
Our Church
has used this parable against the Romish docc. 8,
trine of
works of supererogation.
Of.
Gerhard's Loc. Theoll. ,\oc. 18,
91.
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

cording
to [the
383
among the Jews, and new creation,* and the
deeply significant image in use
sanctioned by our Lord, the birth-pangs of the
distresses of that time are the motive here set forth for prayer,
distress.
es which shall always be
felt,
but then at the last
felt
more intensely
to
than ever.
pray,'' that
"
He
spake a parable unto them, that
men ought always
men must
needs pray always,

that
If
they would escape the things
coming on the earth

It is
such was the only condition of their escaping.

here declared. j-
not so
much
the duty or suitableness, as the absolute necessity, of

is
instant persevering prayer that
Nor
is this
all
that
the parable teaches, but
it
gives us further some very deep insight into
the nature and essence of prayer.

In this precept, to pray always,X
(with
is
which we may compare
Ephes.
thing
vi.
18
Thess.
v.
17,) there
nothing of exaggeration, no-
commanded which may
not be fulfilled,
when we understand of
;
prayer as the continual desire of the soul after God

but not being confined to those times
having indeed
its
times of intensity, seasons of an intenser concentration of the spiritual

life,
;
since the whole
life
of the
faithful
should be, in Origen's beautiful words, one great connected
prayer,
is to salt
or, as St. Basil
expresses
it,
prayer should be the
salt
which
is
every thing besides.

oitJiVw)/,
" That soul," says Donne, " that
ac-
KTiaig
t
* 'ApY'; cvv 0)
Matt. xxiv.
8.
Compare John
xvi. 21,
and Rom.
viii.
22, izaaa
fi
V e
I.
Compare two remarkable sermons by Chrysostom, (De Precatione,) which

this parable,
;
turn a
good deal on
and contain many remarkable things on the extreme needmedicine expelling spiritual sicknesses
fulness of prayer
he
calls it the
the
foundation
of the spiritual building

the
that
to the soul
fish
;
which the nerves are
to the
life
body.
He
likens
man
without prayer to the
out of water and gasping for

but from
to a city
without
walls,
and exposed
to all assaults
him
that
is
armed with prayer the tempter

are Chrysostom's, and the
starts back, as
soldier's bed.
midnight robbers
start
back when they see a sword suspended over a
Some have questioned whether these sermons

(v. 2, p.
is
Benedictine editors
778) speak doubtfully, the main argument against them

it
being, that Sennacherib

is
twice spoken of in them as king of the Persians, an error
thought which Chrysostom could scarcely have committed.

it
But
if
it is
to be consid-
ered an error,
is quite
or nearly as difficult to imagine any one else,

it.
who
the
could write
the
it is.
these sermons falling into
But
it
should not be called a mistake
names of
(Ezra
three great Eastern monarchies were of old continually confounded, and this where
impossible that ignorance could have been the cause.

22,) king of Assyria,
Thus Darius
is called,
;
vi..
and Artaxerxes, (Neh.

first
xiii. 6,)
king of Babylon
the explanation:
different, but(
{Bihl'.
being, that the three
empires, as
we
call
them, were considered not as

different dynasties.
as one and the

Orient.,
s.
v.
same empire, continued under Nouh) mentions something of the

remarquer
ici,
D'Herbelot
sort as being the
view of the modern'

les dynasties
East
II
faut
que
les
Orientaux comprennent dans
des
an
ciens Rois de Perse, les Assyriens, les Babyloniens, et les Medes.

t
Tirinus sets forth well this " always
:"
Non
obstante taedio, metu, tentatione.
384
customed
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

to direct herself to
at sun-rising,
conceives a sense of
God upon every occasion, that as a flower God in every beam of his, and spreads
in a thankfulness, in
and dilates
itself
towards him,
her,
.
every small blessing

ever turned towards
that
it
that he sheds
upon
that soul who, whatsoever string be stricken

estate, is
in her, base or treble,
her high or her low

it
God, that soul prays sometimes when
does not
know
prays."*
Many
Thus,
and most worthy
to
be repeated are Augustine's sayings on this
matter,
drawn
in
as they are from the depths of his own Christian life. one place, " It was not for nothing that the apostle said, Pray
'
without ceasing.'
the body, or
lift
Can we,
indeed, without ceasing bend the knee,

'
bow
up
the hands, that he should say,
Pray without ceasmayest be doing,

if
ing
is
Thei'e
is
another interior prayer without intermission, and that
the longing of thy heart.
Whatever
else thou
thou longest after that Sabbath of God, thou dost not intermit to pray.
If thou wishest not to intermit to pray, see that thou do not intermit to
desire
if
thy continual
is
desire
is
thy continual voice.
Thou
it is
wilt be silent,
thou leave off
to love, for
they were silent of
whom
written,
'
Be-
cause iniquity shall abound, the love of

ness of love
the silence of the heart
many
shall
wax
cold.'
The
is
cold-
the fervency of love
the cry
But he who knew how easily we are put off from prayer, and under vvhat continual temptations to grow slack in it, especially if we find not at once the answer we expect, warns us against this very thing, bidding us to pray always, and '^ not to faint,"j^ not to grow weaof the heart. "f
ry, since in
due season we shall reap

helpless
if
we
faint not
and
in proof of this
he brings forward the parable of the Unjust Judge, with

ble importunities of
tlic
whom
tlie
fee-
widow
did yet so mightily prevail, that

at first
they
at length extorted
to
from him the boon which
he was deter-
mined
deny.
but the Son of
It
None
God himself might have ventured

lips
to
use this
in
comparison.
had been overbold on the
of any other.
For as
the parable of the Friend at Midnight
we were
startled with finding
God
Sermon XI.
On
the Purificniion.
:
i Enarr. in Ps. xxxvii. 10
Ipsum desideiium tuum,oratio tua

.
cst.tt
si
continuum
desiderium, contlnua oratio.

ritatis,
Frigns caritntis, siientium cordis est: flagrantia ca:
clamor cordis
;
est
:
and elsewhere
Tota
vita Christiani honi
sanctum desideCf.
rium
330,
t
est
and again
Lingua tua ad horam laudat,
vita tua
semper laudet.
elsewhere
Ep.
c. 8.
'EKKaKcTn
a word of not unfrequent use with

here.
:"
St. Paul, hut
in the
New
Testament only
Ibis
ter
Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. lxv.20,) warns against the danger of

Vigiest,
"fainting
Multi languescunt in oratione,el in novitate suod conversionis ferven;
Grant, postea languid^, postea frigid6, postea negligenter
quasi securi fiunt.

ille
lat hostis;
elsi differt,
dormis
tu.
Ergo non deficiamus
in oratione
quod concessurus
non
aufert.
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

compared
to a churlish
385
neighbour, so here with finding him likened to
an imrighieous judge.
some have been
at
Yet we must not seek therefore to extenuate as great pains to do, and by many forced constructions
his
unrighteousness;* but on the contrary, the greater
we
conceive
that to have been, the
more does
the consoling and encouraging truth

out, the
which the Lord would enforce come

for persevering
more strong the argument
prayer becomes.
If a bad
hates,
force of the importunity
which he
man will yield to the mere how much more certainly will
is
a righteous
God
be prevailed on by the faithful prayer which he loves.
The
fact that the
judge
is
an unrighteous one,
not an accident cleavis
ing to the earthly form under which the heavenly truth
set forth,
is
and
which would have been got

ting forth of that truth.
rid of, if
it
conveniently could, but
rather
a circumstance deliberately and voluntarily chosen for the mightier setIn two strokes
is
described the wickedness of

man.''''
the earthly judge
he "feared not God, neither regarded

all
"He
feared not God :"
that
God's law had said concerning the judge's

guilt,
charge and the unrighteous judge's

xxiii.
he counted light of; (Exod. 2 Chron. xix.

6,
6-9; Lev.
xix.
15; Deut.
in
i.
16, "17;
7;) nor
merely was there wanting

but
its
him
that higher motive, the fear of
God
poor and miserable substitute, the respect for the opinion of the
world,
was equally inoperative

he dared
to
he had reached that point of reckless
to either. And what was worse avow this contempt to himself. The case, therefore, of any suppliant was the more hopeless, especially of one weak and poor weak, so that she could not compel him to do her justice and poor, so that she could not supply him with any motive, why for her sake
wickedness, that he was alike indifferent

than
all,
he should brave,
it
might
the
be, the
resentment of formidable adversaries.

the parable, one "that
is
Such, no doubt,
is
widow of
widow
in-
deed and desolate."

tion of the state of
Many
writers have noticed the exceeding desolain the East,
widowhood
and the obviousness of the
widow, as one having none
to help her, to all
manner of oppressions and
* For a monstrous specimen of the explanations, of which the aim

the aiiKia of the judge, see Theophylact (in loc.)
It is also
is to
get rid of
it is
not,
however, approved by him.
adduced by Pseudo-Athanasius {De Farah.

,
Script., qu. 30),
and mentioned
in
SuicER, TAes
s. V. -f)(T;j.
It
stands parallel with the extraordinary explanation of

(2
Nathan's parable of the
Ewe Lamb,
c.
Sam.
xii. 1,)
given by Ambrose.
(Apolog.
Froph. David. ,c.
5.)
t Augustine {Serm. 115,
1):
Si ergo exaudivit qui oderat quod rogabatur, quo-
modo
Haec
exaudit qui ut rogemns, hortatur? and Tertullian, on the holy violence of prayer:
vis
Deo
est grata.
Clemens
too (Potter's ed., p. 947)
Xui'pci b Gioj
to.
roiavra
TiTTUêDOg.
386
wrongs
J*
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

of this, the numerous warnings against such oppression which
;
Scripture contains, are sufficient evidence. (Exod. xxii. 22
Deut. xxiv.
17; xxvii. 19; Mai.
iii.
5,
and
many
more.)
How
which
in
is
fitly
then does this
widow represent
cution, not necessarily under
the Church f under perseany particular persecution, but under that
always going forward, the oppression from the adverse element
which she draws her breath. Nor need it be only the Church at large which we see represented in her, but also any single soul in conflict with the powers of darkness and the world. The adversary then,
(" your adversary, the Devil," of this world, the head of
all
1 Pet. v. 8,) is the
prince of the darkness
the powers which are arrayed against the
manifestation of the kingdom of
God
either in a single soul, or in the

it is
whole world
it ;
keeping down and, as far as
allowed him, oppressing
the spiritual
Herod
elect,
that is ever seeking to destroy the

first fruits
heavenly
child.
But the
they who, having the
of the Spirit,
groan within themselves, waiting their perfect redemption, are here represented as in conflict with those adverse powers, as suffering oppression from them ; till under the sense of that oppression, and of their helplessness to effect their
own
deliverance, a cry
is
wrung
out from them,
a cry generally for
aid,
but chiefly for that aid which will be final and
complete, the revelation of the Son of
man
in
his glory,
even
fall
the cry
of the Prophet, "
Oh
the
that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou

(Isai. liv. 1,)
wouldest come down,"

rise again,
when
the wicked shall
and not
when
Church
shall be at rest,
being for ever set free

It
from
all
the enemies that are round about her.
would be a very imto
perfect and slight view of those cries for deliverance,

often in the
Psalms and
in
the Prophets, to refer
them
which occur so any particular
and transient outward afflictions or persecutions which the Church or any of its members are enduring. The world is always, whether consciously or unconsciously, whether by flattery or by hostile violence,
oppressing the Church

ifestation
and Satan evermore seeking

in
to
hinder the man:
of the
life
of
God
every one of her members

of Scripture from the
and prayer
is
For instance,
Ward
ita
in his Illustrations
Manners and Cus-
toms of the Hindoos.
Tiius, too,
Terence
Non,
Quae
in
me Dii anient, me fecit.
auderet facere haec viduae mulieri.
t Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. cxxxi. 15)
Omnis anima
.
quae intelligit se desertam

est, deserta in
omni
auxilio nisi solius Dei, vidua est

;
omnis Ecclesia una vidua
hoc seculo
illi
;
si
aentit illud, si novit viduitatem

1.
suam
tunc enim auxilium preesto est
and Quast. Evang.,

ejus gerit.
2. qu.
45
Ipsa ver6 vidua potest habere similitudinem
Ecclesiae, quae desolata videtur
donee veniat Dominus, qui tamen in secreto etiam nunc
curam
Cf. Isai. liv. 1-8.
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

the cry de profundis which
to aid,
287
enemy should
the elect utter, the calling in of a mightier

to
when they
feel the
danger
be urgent
lest the
prevail against them.
And
the words in
which
their need finds utter-
ance, " Avenge

in
me of mine
;
adversary,'' wonderfully express the relation
which we stand
to the evil
of which
we
are conscious as mightily

self,
working within us
that
it
is
not our very
but an alien power,
holding us in bondage,
not the very "

is
I," as St.
Paul (Rom.
vii.) is
so
careful to assert, for then redemption would be impossible, but sin which,
having introduced
itself,
one great work of the Spirit of God
tween us and the

the old, that
it is
evil
now seeking to keep us in bondage. It is to make us feel this distinctness bewhich is in us. The new creation is in this like
yet,
a separating of the light from the darkness in the soul
of man,
not indeed, as
to that
an entire expelling of that darkness, but a

it,
disengaging of the light from

rect relation with
so that the light being brought into di-
him who
is
the fountain of all light,
may
act as
an op-
posing power
darkness.
The good and
the evil in
him are no
longer in a state of blind contradiction, but of distinct self-conscious opposition.
The renewed man knows

knows
that he has an adversary, but for
his comfort, he
also that this adversary is not his very self, but
another, so that if he resist him, he will flee from

the
that
him
he knows that
power which
it
that other exercises over
him
is
an usurpation, and
will be a righteous thing for
God
;
to cast out
him who obtained

this,
that
power by fraud and by violence
and knowing
he
is
able to
cry, with the

rather, since
widow men go
in the parable, "
Avenge me of mine adversary," or
not to a judge for vengeance, but for justice,
"
Do
me
right on, deliver
me
from the oppression
of,
mine adversary."* And

" Deliver us
is
this is the
same
petition that
we make
daily,
when we say
from evil," or rather, " from the Evil One,"

source and centre of
all evil.f
from
him who
the
not for a while."
For a time the judge was deaf to the widow's petition " He would When it was said above that the strength of the pa;
rable lay in the unlikeness between the righteous Judge of the world,
and
this
ungodly earthly judge,
it
was
not
meant
to
be denied,
this too is part of the teaching here,
nay,
to
that
God
often seems to
man
be
acting as this unjust judge, to be turning a deaf ear to the prayer of his
people.
For even the
elect are impatient
under suffering and
affliction
* Schleusner,
s. v. IkSiksoi
Assere
me
juredicundo ab injuria adversarii mei.
The
iii.
Vulgate
t
Vindica
me
de adversario meo.
xiii.
The analogy
of other passages. Matt.
19,
39
Eph.
vi.
16
2 Thess.
3,
;
would
and
all
lead us to translate in the Lord's prayer,

the quotations in Suicer's Thes.,
s. v.,
Trovrjpov
not as a neuter, but masculine

it
show
that
was
so interpreted in the
Greek Church.
3S8
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

tiian
they expect a speedier deliverance

safe
God
to
is
always willing
to
vouch-
them
they think they have a claim
be heard and delivered more
promptly than God thinks good.*
They
cry, and
to
when they
receive no
speedy answer, but are
left,
as
it
appears
them, long in the hands of
their enemies, or in the furnace of affliction, they are tempted to hard
thoughts of God, as though he took part with, or

to
at least
endure, the proud oppressors, while the cry of his

;
afflicted
was contented people was

disis
as nothing in his ears

ciples,
they are tempted
to
say with the storm-tost
"Carest thou not that
we
perish ?"
Now
the parable
in fact
intended, as
we
shall
presently see, to meet this very difficulty and

faithful,
temptation, to which the

trials,
suffering long
under sore earthly

course what
hearing, but
"
his
are exposed.
We have
in ver. 4,5, recorded, not of
the judge spoke aloud, scarcely
what he spoke
in
own
the voice of his heart, as that heart spake in the hearing of
God
:-j-
He
said within himself,
Though 1 fear not God, nor regard man,
yet be-
cause
this
widoiv trouhlelh me,
will avenge
her,
lest
hy her continual
coning she weary \ me."
He was
not impelled in the matter by
any
other motive than a selfish regard for his
own
ease and quiet
but lest
these should be continually disturbed and broken in upon, he does her
he may be rid of her, that she may not plague nor vex him any more, as it was the same molive, though of course in a much milder form, which moved the disciples to ask for the woman of Canaan,
right, that so
that her prayer might be granted
" Send her away, for she crieth after
Augustine, Enarr. 2 in Ps. xxxiv. 17.

:
t Bernard
t
Audit Deus
in corde cogitantis,
quod nee
ii;raj7r(dî),
ipse audit qui cogitat.

vttmttioi',
He
uses a very strong expression here,
from
the part of the
face under the eyes.

existant.
to
Wahl
incoTniôi, sugillo, ut
sub oculis vivices et maculae luridae

27) to describe the hard discipline
is
St. Paul uses the
same word
(1 Cor. ix.
which he submitted
v-Tovii^t,),
his body.
Both there and here there

is
another reading,
in-oTridô)
or
instead of vvoi-maô), which
not without some authorities in
its
favour.
It is
easy, however, to see how, in the present instance, that reading arose, the
tran-
scribers liiiniving this too strong

effect
;
an expression
till
for
anything which the widow could
for
how
could she punish him

is
his face
became black and blue?
But the
;
use of so strong a term

bole judicis
iiijusti
very characteiistic of the
man
described.
Bengel
Hyper-
et impatientis personae
conveniens
it is
exactly this exagD;eralion

ils
of language which selfishness uses in the things which threaten
own
;
case and enjoytTKv'^Xtiv,
ment
same
and we have numerous examples of a

to flay
;
like
usage of words
thus
to
vex or annoy, means properly

sense,
and the Spanish ahorcar, used much

;
in
the
is
means
;
rightly, to put to
death by hanging
and our English

sense
to
plague,
properly, to lash
and these examples might
easily be multiplied.
in this
:
Beza's translation,
thus Terence,
obtundat,
is
happy,
that word being used exactly

The
at
Ne me
obtundas
5,) that
it
ha,c
de re sa;pius.
pity
assertion
was
which
length
made by Chrysostom, De Laz., Cone. 3, cmoved the judge, is totally without foundation,
and opposed
to the spirit of the parable.
THE -UNJUST JUDGE.

US."*
(Matt. XV. 23.)
389
alto-
Indeed
this parable
and that miracle form
gether an interesting parallel-
(Compare
Sirac. xxxv. 17.)
and
Between the parable and its application, 6, it is likely that the Lord paused for a
that
is,
between vor, 5
while, and then again re;
sumed
his discourse his
"
Hear what
the unjust
first
judge sailh
and
nhall not
God avenge
own
elect .?"
In the
clause of the sentence the emin the other, the epithet of

is
phasis should be laid on the
word " unjust ;"
goodness which should complete the antithesis

sarily included in the
omitted, as being neces-
name, God;
if
?
the unjust judge acts thusj shall
not the just
ried through all the
God avenge his own members of

to the
elect
And
;
the antithesis
is to
be caris
the sentence
the righteous
God
not
only opposed
unrighteous judge, but the elect, the precious before

;
God,
our
;
to the
widow, the despised among men
their prayers to her clamto
and the days and nights during which those prayers are made,
the comparatively short time during
which she with her importunities
beset the judge.
The
certainty that the elect will be heard rests not,
however, on their mighty and assiduous f crying as its ultimate ground, but on their election of God, which is, therefore, here brought especially
into notice,
ij:
and they called by

titles that
this
name
of God's elect, rather than by
any other of the many

appropriate
is
:
might
at first sight
have seemed equally
^just
as in Daniel (xii. 1) the deliverance of God's servants
same cause ; " At that time," that is, at the time of extremest distress, " thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be
traced up to the
written in the book."
found
*
Shall he not avenge them, asks, the Lord,
The endeavour
to obtain help or redress
by long-continued crying, and by mere

is
force of importunity,
to extort
is
by these means a boon or a right which

tlie
expected
from no other motives,
quite in the spirit of

(I
East.
Thus
it
is
mentioned in
refer-
Chardin's Travels in Persia,
have not the book at hand to give the exact
ence,) that the peasants of a district,
when
their crops
have
failed,
and they therefore
desire a remission of the contributions
imposed on
their villages, or
when
(Job
they would
appeal against some tyrannical governor, will assemble before the gates of theSchah's
harem, and there continue howling and throwing dust in the

xxii. 23,)
air,
ii.
12
Acta
and not be silenced or driven away,
till
he has sent out and demanded the

;
cause, and thus given them at least an opportunity of stating their griefs
or some-
times they would beset him in the same manner, as he passed through the streets of
the city, and thus seek to gain,
and
often succeed in gaining, their point, not from his
love of justice, but from his desire to be freed from annoyance.

lllust., V. 2, p.
See Burder's Orient,

but a
;
382.
t 'Hfftjjaf Koi vvKTOi here
nivTOTt of ver. 1.
Our English " cry"

it
is
weak
it
translation of the
original poSv.
iv.
Tertullian translates
iii.
better
by mugire
is
is
mighty crying (Gen.

the elect.
t
10
Jon.
8,
LXX.
Jam.
v.
4) which
here attributed to
Bengel
(ore
Matt. xxiv. 22)
Ubi supra robur fidelium ordinarium excedit
vis
tentationum, electio allegatur.
390
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

?''
" though he bear long with them
or since that phrase
is
mostly used
in Scripture, to set forth the relation of
God
to the sins
of men,
it
tience in giving
them time and space
for repentance,
his pa-
would avoid
perplexity if here another phrase were used, as for instance, "though he bear them long in hand ?" or " though he delay with them long ?"*
that
is,
long, as
people as "
men count length. He may be slack in avenging his men count slackness," as compared with their impatience,
;
and with their desire to be at once delivered from affliction but, indeed, " he li'ill avenge them speedily,^' not leaving them a moment longer in
the fire of affliction than
that patience has
is
needful, delivering
them from
there
is,
it
the instant
is
had
its
perfect
work
so that
and there
meant
to be,
an apparent contradiction, while yet there
is
no real one,
to
it
between ver. 7 and that which follows.

patience seems to tarry long, indeed
The
relief
which
;
man's imcould not,
arrives speedily
according
to the far-seeing
and loving counsels of God, have arrived a
* The words
aiiTois to
xal jiaKpoOvudv in
avTois
have created
is
much
difficuhy.
Some
refer
the oppressors,
;
on
whom
the vengeance
taken, and
iiaKpoOvjioiv is
then used
in its
commonest sense
" Shall not
their oppressors?" yet against this
God avenge his elect, though he bear long with Wolf says truly, Impiorum, de quibus ullio sit susee Heb.
vi.
menda, non meminit
Christus.
But âKpoOvjxiw need not be necessarily, differo ultionem,

;
but merely differo, patienter expecto
15
Jam.
v. 7,
Job
vii.
16
and
especially Sirac. xxxv. 18, (in the Greek, xxxii. 18.)
Grotius seizes happily the point

in
from which the two meanings diverge
he says
Est
hac voce dilationis

Suicer,
significatio,
quae ut debitori prodest, ita gravis est ei qui
vim
patitur.
who has
given rightly
the
meaning of
proverb
the Lord's
words (quamvis
lentfe
ad vindicandum ipsos procedat), has

all
(8. V. jiaKpoOvfiiw)
a good and useful commentary on
the latter part of the parable.

et moras.
The
may
be brought into comparison

I
Habet Deus suas horas,
Since the above was written,
have seen an essay by Hassler, {Tubing. Zeitschr., 1832,
Heft 3, pp. 117-125,) wherein he finds fault with this explanation, which he denies to
lie
in the words,
and makes
koX fiaKpoOvjioJi/
tir'
airoTs
a description of God's patience of the judge under tbe soUci-
with his suppliants, as contrasted with the

tations of her that beset
fretful irritation
him
and the passage,
in his
view, might thus be translated,
" Shall not God avenge his

not avenge them, and so
own elect, when also he is patient toward them ?" shall he much the more while their reiterated prayers do not vex or
vexed and wearied the judge
weary him,
as that widow's prayers
excite no impatience
Our Lord is then giving an additional motive why they should not faint in prayer. There may be a question, whether it is not the intention of the Vulgate to give this meaning, when it translates, Et patientiam habebit in illis 1 and of Luther: Und sollte Geduld darOber haben ? but dariiber is ambiguous. At all events this interpretation has no claim to be a new light thrown upon
but only pity in his heart.
the passage, as the writer supposes.
Homberg, (Parergn,
to
fall
p.
146, had long ago proit,
posed
it,
and Wolf {Cura,

;
in loc.) is inclined
in
with
who sums up
the
meaning thus
Patientia igitur Dei hie

injusti
refertur
ad auditionem precum electorum,
quod oppositum judicis

viduse querelas.
exemplum
probabile redd it, qui
non patienter audiebat
THE UNJUST JUDGE.

moment
earlier.*
391
words
in
We may
find a practical illustration of these
the whole of our Lord's conduct with the family of
Bethany (John
the
xi.) in
the depths into which he suffered them to be brought, before he arrived

to
aid
just as, to take a
milder example,
last, that
it
was not
till
fourth
watch, in other words, until the
he came to aid
his disciples
labouring in vain against an adverse and perilous sea.

25.)
(Matt. xiv. 24,
The words
with which the application of the parable concludes,
" Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth .?" are perplexing, for they appear at first sight to call in question
the success of his whole mediatorial work.f
grounds
for believing that the
Church
will, at that
is
But though we have other last moment, be renot that there

will be
duced
to
a very
little
band
yet here the point
then few faithful or none, but that the faith even of the faithful will be
almost failing
at the tion
the distress will be so urgent, the darkness so thick,

at last the
moment when
to fail
Son of man
shall
come
forth for salva-
and deliverance, that even the hearts of his elect people will have
begun
them
for fear.
The
lateness of the help Zechariah (xiv.
1-5) describes, under the images of the old theocracy,

be already taken, the
lating,
Jerusalem
shall
when
the
enemy shall be within its walls, spoiling and desoLord shall come forth, his feet standing on the Mount
against
its
of Olives,
to fight
enemies.
at his
All help will seem utterly to
have
failed, so that the
Son of man
coming
will hardly find faith,
or rather that faith, the faith which does not faint in prayer, with allusion
to ver. 1,
the faith
which hopes against hope, and believes that

is
light will
break forth even when the darkness

ues
to pray,:{:
thickest, and believing this contin-
he
to,
will
hardly find that faith upon earth.
The
fail,
verse
stands parallel
and
may
be explained by, those other words of our
Lord's
" For the elect's sake," lest their faith also should
and so
* Unger {De Par. Jes. Nat.,

illud
p.
136)
Opponuntur
sibi jiaKpoQvjiuiv
atque
iv Taxt^,
fortasse ad
hominum opinionem
(ut sit, " si vel
tardior videatur,") hoc

xci. 6)
ad sapi-
ens Dei consilium referendum.
has some admirable
remarks on the impatience of men, contrasted with the seeming tardiness of God.
+
We
learn from Augustine that they
were used by
the Donatists, in reply to
the Church,
when
she pleaded against them her numbers and her universality,

:
nes enim haeretici in paucis et in parte sunt

tists
Enarr. in Ps. xxxi.
2.)
(OmThe Donalast times,)
answered, (applying
to their
own day
this
this
prophecy concerning the

faithful
;
that the
find faith
t
Lord himself had declared

on the earth.
fewness of the
how he
should hardly
Theophylact observes here on

KpriwU
!i
faith, as the
one condition of prayer,

:
iricru vpoffev:
^rii fiaOpov KoX
TrioTis.
And
Augustlne
Si fides deficit, oratio perit
quis
enim
orat quod
non
credit
392
no
flesh should
THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.

be saved, " those days shall be shortened."*
(Matt,
xxiv. 22.)
PARABLE XXIX.

Luke
xviii.
9-14.
The
for
last
;
parable was
this that
it
to
teach us that prayer must be earnest and peralso be
severing
must
humble. f
Some have
set
supposed,
as,
example, Vitringa,^ that here too we have
forth before us the
rejection of the Jew and the acceptance of the Gentile ; the Pharisee being the representative of that whole nation, which would have taken
* Vitringa's explanation of the parable (Erkltlr. d. Parab., p. 960, seq.)

I should think
it
is
curious-
his
own, and
likely to
remain
so.
The
unjust judge represents the
Roman
pressors.
emperors, the importunate
widow
the early Church,

to
which sought evermore

its
to plead its cause before
them, and by their interference

its
be delivered from
op-
The
emperors, after a long while, undertook

to
defence, ceasing themselves

it.
to persecute,
this is
and not suffering others any more

Irenaeus, {Cov. Hcer
,
persecute
Yet
stranger than
the
view of
1.
5, c. 25,)
c.
and of
37.
Hijipolytas, or
is
whoever
else is the author of the treatise
Be
Antichristo,
The widow
the earthly
Jerusalem, Israel after the

that
is, to
flesh,
is
which, forgetful of God, turns to the unjust judge,
Antichrist, for he
the despiser alike of
God and men,
(ver. 2,)
for aid
against
him
whom
she falsely believes her adversary, namely, Christ.
They
v.
see an
allusion to the last days
and
to the
mighty part which, as they assume, the unbeliev(John
ing Jews will have in the setting up of Antichrist's kingdom.

viii. 12.)
43
Dan.
t Augustine
finds a
yet closer connexion
Quia
fides
non
est
superborum sed
humilium, prsmissis subjecit parabolam de humilitate contra superbiam.

\
Erklar.
d.
Parab.,
p.
974.
Augustine too (Enarr. in Ps. Ixxiv.

it is
iS)
thinks this
application
may
be made, though
not with him the primary

et
Hoc
latius accipi-
entes, intelligamus duos populos,

saeus
ille.
Judaeorum
ille.
Gentium
Judteorum populua Phariin Luc.)
Gentium populus Publicanus

confitebatur peccata sua.
Judoeorum populus jactabat merita sua,

:
Gentium
isaeus,
So H. de Sto Victore {Annott.

ex
Phar-
Judaicum populum
significat, qui
justificationis legibus extollit

:
merita sua,
et
superbiendo recedit.
Humiliatus publicanus, Gentilem significat
qui long6
a Deo
positus, peccata confitetur, et
lamentando propinquat Deo,
et
exaltatur.
Schleier-
macher
here
also observes, that
it
contradicts the idea of a parable, that the Pharisee should

yields to the
mean a
Pharisee, or the Pharisees generally; but this objection
fact; that the
term parable
is
of very wide signification throughout the
New
Testament.

him
with
as
its
393
most favourable specimen
the
publican, of the Gentiles,
whom
those despised collectors of customs were
commonly
classed;
the one glorying in his merits, proudly extolling himself above the sin-
ners of the Gentiles, but through this very pride and self-righteousness
failing to
become partaker of the righteousness of God
while the other,
meekly acknowledging his vileness, and repenting of his sins, is justified freely by his grace. But the words with which the parable is introduced (ver. 9), and which must give the law to its interpretation, are It was spoken " unto certain which trusiedin themopposed to this view.
selves that they were righteous,
and despised
in
olhers ; the
aim of
that
it
was
to
cure a
him.
fault
which the Lord had noted

in
some of those
surrounded
He
had seen
some of
is
his disciples, displays of s piritual prid e.
of
self-exaltation,
accompanied, as they always will be, with the jaonno hint given
in
tempt of others.
There
the context to lead us to
suppose that the relations of Jew and Gentile are
now
before him
he
is
dealing rather with a spiritual mischief, which he has observed showing

itself in
some of
I
his
own
followers;
say, in
some of
It
his
own
followers,
because
cannot for an instant conceive that by the example of a Pharisee
he
is
warning and rebuking the Pharisees.

have held up
in the parable.
would have been

held
to
no
profit to
to these the spectacle of a
Pharisee praying, as
it
this
one prays
They would have

sin,
only most na-
tural and proper, that he should have prayed in this fashion.*
There
in
would have been for them no conviction of for one who had advanced much further in
danger of
deformity.
repent.
falling
to
but only for a disciple,
spiritual insight,
though
back
into pharisaic sins.

to
Such an one would only

at its
need his sin
be plainly shown
him, and he would start back
He would
see the Pharisee in himself, and tremble and
"
Two men went up
into the temple to pray,''

iii.
we
are to suppose at one
of the fixed hours of devotion, (Acts

other a publican ;" a
1,)
" the one a Pharisee and the

as one might say, if preachthat class of
Brahmin and a Pariah,
ing from this Gospel in India
the Pharisee, a specimen of

it,
men, who, satisfying themselves with a certain external freedom from

* Or to take another view of
wliich
is
Mr. Greswell's: " Of what use
in
moral point of view would
it
be to hold up to the Pharisee the true picture of himself

there be of correcting his characteristic vices, what-
and
his sect
or
what hope could
ever they were, by laying them bare, and exposing them openly and nakedly before
himself?
Such an exposure might be well calculated
to irritate
and offend, but not
to reform or
parties in
amend them their own disgrace

;
for
it
cannot be supposed that they would willingly be
or patiently acquiesce in their
also p. 248, note,
some important remarks on
the question
own condemnation." See how far th's is a parable
proper or not.
26
394

own
hearts,
gross offences, have remained ignorant of the plague of their
and have never learned

do not even
tative of all
to say,
Deliver
me
from mine adversary,

;
who
know
that they
have an adversary
the other, the represen-
who, though they have
much and
grievously transgressed,
are
now
feeling the burden of their sins, and heartily
mourning them,
sins,
who
also are yearning after one
who
shall deliver
them from those
and from the curse of God's broken law. The parable would make U3 feel how much nearer is such an one to the kingdom of God than the
self-complacent Pharisee, or than any
per of the Pharisee,

without.*
It
is
that he indeed
who share in the spirit and temmay be within it, while the other is
a mistake growing out of forgetfulness of Jewish and early
Christian customs,
when some commentators
see in the fact that the

itself,
-7 Pharisee prayed slandlng, an evidence already manifesting

pride. (
of his
Even
the parable itself contradicts this notion, for the publi-
can, whose prayer
was an humble one,

;
stood also.
viii.
But
to
pray standing
vi.
was
vi.
the
;
manner
xi.
of the Jews
(1 Kin.
22
2 Chron.
12
Matt.
Mark
25
;)
though
in
moments of a more than ordinary humithis attitude for

vi.
liation or
emotion of heart, they changed
one of kneeling
or prostration.
xxi. 5.)
(Dan.
vi.
10; 2 Chron.
13; Acts
ix.
40; xx. 36;
The term
;
station (statio) passed into the
usage of the Christian

because standing the
Church
it
was
so called, as
Ambrose explains
it,
Christian soldier repelled the attacks of his spiritual
Lord's day the

vwerc again
faithful stood in prayer, to

;
enemy ; and on the commemorate their Saviour's

fallen,
resurrection on that day

lifted
through which they, who by sin had
up and
set
upon their
words somewhat
"
I
differently,
Some have combined the rendered the passage in this way and
feet.ij:
The Pharisee stood hy himself,^ and prayed." There would be certainly something morally striking in this construction of the passage,
* Gregory the Great {Moral.,
21) wittily likens this Pharisee, and
1.
19,
c.
all
who, because of
their victory over certain
temptations, are exalted with pride, and
80 perish through their very successes, to Eleazar,
who
:
killed the elephant, but
was
himself crushed by
its falling
body
(1
Mace.
vi.
46)
In prselio elephantem ferieng
8travit,sed sub ipso quern extinxit, occubuit. + Tirinus

:
Pharisaeus stans superbo et erecto animo, quasi

It is
Deum
ad judicium
provocans
so also Theophylact.
possible however, the

all
word may be emphatic,

as he
He stoodJoTNvardjrominently
his devotions, (see Matt. vi. 5,)
so that
men might
see
him
was engaged
in
which would then contrast with the

1, c. 18, 70. b. 13, c. 8, 3.
fioKpoOev ianm-,
and
the whole attitude of the publican; on
which see Cyprian, De Orat. Dom., ad
init.
and Ambrose, De
X
Off.
Minist.,
1.
See BiNGHAJrt's Christ. Antt.,
lavTuv.
So Cameron and
J.
Cappelius in the Crit. Sac,
who make
npdi lavruv
Kad'

indicating as
it
395
would
that the Pharisee,
name,* and now

himself and
construction,
all
also in
outward
act,
desired
;
the separatist in spirit as in

to
put a distance between

;)
unclean worshippers
(see Isai. Ixv. 5
but the other
it is
generally agreed, should be adhered
to.
His prayer
its
at first
seems
to
promise well
;
" God, I thank
thee,'^
yet
early promise quickly disappears
under the pretence of thankfulness
to
God, he does but thinly

for
veil
his exaltation of self;

for
and he cannot
for the
thank God
what he has done
him, without insulting and casting

;"|"
scorn upon others.
He
it
thanks hirn indeed, but not aright

''
Pharisees, as Grotius well observes,
did not exclude the divine help.
But they who allow

it,
and use
to
this
language, are frequently ungrateful to

first
allotting, as
they do,
;
themselves the
share in virtuous actions, to

benefits, as to avoid fleeing
God
the second
or so recognizing
common
as suppliants to that peculiar mercy, which their
own
sins require.":}:
Thus
little
it
was with him
but the right recognition of God's grace will
always be accompanied with deep self-abasement, while we confess how
how infinitely short we are of true we have been to that grace, what we ought to, and might, have been, having had such help at com-
mand
and moreover we shall thank him as
much
for
our needs,
for the
sense of need which he has awakened within us, as for the supplies of
grace which he has given us.

^'not as other
But
this
Pharisee thanks
God
that he is
men/' as the
rest of
men, dividing the whole of mankind

all
into
two classes, putting himself in a class alone, and thrusting down

;
beside himself into the other class
his
arrogance reaches even
to
such
a pitch as this
as
he in one class,
all
the world besides in the other.
And
he can think nothing too good of himself, so nothing too bad of
them
they do not merely come a little short of his excellencies, but ; And then, his eye alighting they are " extortioners, unjust, adulterers."
Hesychius
âpKrator
aipupiajiivoi,
:
fitjicpiajiivo;,
Kadapus.
St.
Bernard observes
how
non
he isolates himself in his prayer
Gratias agit non quia bonus, sed quia solus,
tarn de bonis quae habet, qucim de nialis quae in aliis videt.
t Augustine says here, (Serin. 115,

gratiae:
c. 3,)
with an eye to the Pelagians, the ingrati

si
Quid
?
est ergo qui
impie oppugnat gratiam,
reprehenditur qui superbe agit
gratias
t
There
is
an interesting anecdote
told o( the
writer of these words, which con-
nects itself with this parable.
ness on his
way
to
At Rostock, where he was overtaken by a mortal illSweden, he was attended on his death-bed by a Lutheran clergythis last
man, named Quistorp. When man, on the one side, of all his
merits and reputation which
Jesus, as of the one
reminded him, with the
fidelity
due
to a
dying
sins
known and unknown, and on
the other, not of hia
filled
the world, but only of the grace of
way
of salvation, and of the publican

'
God in Christ who had known how to lay

Quistorj^
hold of that way, Grotius replied,
am
that
publican," and so expired.
has himself given the account in a
letter to Calovius, the old antagonist
of Grotiiw.
396
THE PHARISEE AND THE

whom
he
PUBLICAIV.
nothing, but that he
to
on the publican,* of
may have known
was
a publican, he drags him into his prayer, making him
supply the
dark back-ground on which the bright colours of his own virtues shall
more gloriously appear

be, in the
and
in the blindness of his heart finding,
it
may
oT
deep heart-earnestness with which the penitent was beating his
breast, in the fixedness of his
downcast eyes, proofs

nor
in confirmation
the judgment which he passes upon him.

to beat his breast in that fashion,
He, thank God, has no need

his
to cast
eyes in that shame
upon the ground
he has done nothing to call
for this.
So perfect
is
he in regard to the
first
is
;
commands
he
is
of the second table. "
He
twice
now
returns to the
in that also
without blame.
Ifast
in the
week."
to
He
evidently boasting his works of supererogation.
According
the law of Moses, but one fast-day in the year
was ap-
pointed, the great
29; Num. xxix. 7,) but the more religious Jews, both those who were so and those who would seem so, and especially the Pharisees, kept two fasts weekly,:|; on
day of
atonement,-f- (Lev.
xvi.
the second and

'^
fifth
days
in the
week.
Thus
the law
does he
nor
is this
all
commanded only to tithe Deut. fruit of the field and produce of the cattle, (Num. xviir. 21 the Lev. xxvii. 30,) but he tithed mint and cummrn, (Matt, xxiii. xiv. 22 23,) all that came into his possession, down to the trifles on which there was question, even in the Jewish schools, whether it was needful to tithe
I give
tithes
of
all that
I possess ;"
them or
claim
to
not.
(Hos.
sii.
8.)
He would
;
therefore in both respects lay

;
doing more than might strictly be demanded of him
he would
bring in
fasiing
in
to
God
as his debtor
turning those very precepts concerning
and paying of tithes, which were given to men, the first to wakeg them the sense of inward poverty and need, the second to bring then) feel that whatever they had, they were debtors for it to God and
his,
stewards of
turning even
these into occasions for self-exaltation,
and using them to minister to his arrogance and his pride.
Acknow-
ledgment of wants or confession of

* Augustine, (Enarr. I* in Ps. Ixx.
t Called therefore
t
/i
sin, there is
none
in his prayer, if
2.)
Hoc jam non

;
est exstiltare, sed insnltare.

vrtareiai copri'i.
vrimda, Acts xxvii. 9
and by Philo,
The Latin Fathers

it is
are led astray by the too aa/S/ûTov here, (in the Vufgate, in
sabbato,) and understand the Pharisee to say that he fasted twice
vpon
the Sabbath,
though
difficult to
guess what they could have understood by the twice fasting

c. 4.)
upon one day.
(See Augustine's Ep. 36,
But the week was entitled, ra

from
its chiefeat
aitSiSara,
or sometimes as here, to ad00aTov, deriving
its title
day, as on the other
hand
the Sabbath was called iffiojiai. 'Oaa KTdâi, which should be rather, All that I acquire, or. All It is only the perfect xcKTi^jiai which means, I possess, mihi redeunt).
I
that I earn (qti
in other
words,
have earned.
error.
All the English translations, with the Vulgate (quse possideo), share in a
common

prayer
it
397
can be called, which

?
is
without these.*
sins,
"
Had he
then no
sins to confess
Yes, he too had
but perverse and knowing not
whither he had come, he was like a patient on the table of a surgeon,
who
,
should show his sound limbs and cover his hurts.

:
But
let
God cover
;
thy hurts, and not thou
for
if,
ashamed, thou seekest
to
cover them,
the physician will not cure them.
Let him cover and cure them for under the covering of the physician the wound is healed, under the covit
ering of the sufferer
is
only concealed
and concealed from
whom
from him
It
things are known, "f aggravates our sense of the moral outrage which
to
all
whom
is
involved in the
Pharisee's contemptuous allusion to his fellow-worshipper, if
we keep
in
mind
that in this last
we
I
are to see one
passing into the kingdom of

trite heart, to
who at God, who had come

is
this
very moment was

con-
in the fulness of a
first
make, as
think evidently
meant, the
deep confeshis lips, in
sion of his sins past
which had ever found utterance from
whom
under sore pangs the'new man was being born.
How
horrible a
thing does the Pharisee's untimely scorn appear,
when we
think of
it,
mingling as a harshest discord with the songs, the
Te Deums
of angels,
which
at this very
moment
hailed the lost
which was found, the sinner
that repented.
For "
the publican standing afar off," though, as
Augus-
tine observes, not afar off
from God,
for the
Lord
is
nigh unto them that

:j:
are of a contrite heart, " would not
heaven,"
that
unto lift up so much as Ids eyes Holy One, for he felt as (he prodigal, he had sinned against heaven, (Luke xv. 18,) as Ezra when he exto
the dwelling of the
claimed, "
thee,
O my God, my God for our

:
am ashamed,
and blush
to
lift
up
my
face to
iniquities are increased over
our heads, and our
trespass
is
grown up unto
the heavens."
(Ezra
ix. 6.)
He stood "
o/ar
* Augustine {Serm. 290,

dixisti
c.
;
c.
6)
Rogare veneras, an
te
laudare? totum
]
te
habere
nihil
tanquam egens
est,
petisti.
Quomodo
ergo orare venisti

;
And
Serm. 115,
Parum
non
Deum
2'-
rogare sed se laudare

in Ps. xxxi. 2,)
insuper et roganti insultare.

in the
:
t Augustine, {Enarr.
is
who has
same
place
much more
Pharisaeus
that
excellent on this parable.
See, also, Serm. 351,
c. 1
Non enim
ille
tam
qukm morborum alienorum comparatione gaudebat. Utilius autem illi erat.quoniam ad medicum venerat.ea de quibus aegrotabat confitendo monstrare,quain dissimulare k vulneribus suis, et de cicairicibus alienis audere gloriari. Non ergo mirum, si publicanus magis curatus abscessit, quem non puduit ostendere quod dolebat. Cf. Chrysostom, De Pmnit Horn. 2, 4. " Not so much as his eyes" far less then his hands and his countenance, which I
sua sanitate,
,
yet would be usually

Ps. xxviii. 2 the eyes cast
;)
lifted
up
in prayer
(1
Tim.
ii.
Kin.
his.
viii.
which no doubt the Pharisee had

to the
lifted
up in
54 Heb. xii. 12 The feeling, that in

;
down
ground
is
the natural expression of

(far/j(/)ia,
shame and humiliation,
is
permanently embodied in the word

72)
:
from Kara and
ûoy.
Cf. Tacitus (Hist. 4,
Stabant conscientia.
flagitii
maestse fixis in terram oculis.
398

full right to
q^," not that he was a proselyte or a heathen, or had not

proach, for undoubtedly he also
ap-
was
Jew
but in reverent awe, not
presuming
to press
nearer to the holy place, for he
knew something of
the holiness of God, and (which always exactly keeps pace with that
knowledge) of his own sinfulness and defilement he felt that his sins had set set him at a distance from God, and until he had received the atonement, the propitiation which he asks for, he could not presume to
;
draw
near.
Moreover, he " smote ttpon his breast," an outward sign
of inward grief or self-accusation,* (Luke xxiii. 48,) as one judging himself, that he might not be judged of the Lord, and who would ac-
knowledge how much heavier strokes might justly come upon him, at the same time " saying, God he mercifvl-f to me a sinner, "X or " to me,
the sinful one ;" for as the other had singled himself out as the most
eminent of
saints, or indeed as the
one holy one in the world, so ihe pub-
lican singles himself out as the chiefof sinners, the
have met
first
a characteristic trait
for
who
at that
man in whom all sins moment when he is

sins
truly convinced of his sins, thinks

?
any other man's
can be equal
to his
own And he
found the mercy which he asked
',
his prayer like incense
ascended unto heaven, a sacrifice of sweet savour, while the prayer of

the other
was blown back

to his
like
smoke
into his
own eyes
for "
God
this
re-
sisteth the proud, but giveth
grace unto the humble :" " /
went down
house justified rather than the
man other. "^ Not merely was

tell
you
c. I)
Tundere
pectus, quid est, nisi argere quod latet in

;
pectore,et evident! puisu occultuni castigare peccatum

est
for as
elsewhere he says: Quid

ibi
homo
pcenitens, nisi
homo
sibi irascens
Bengel
is
Ubi dolor,
:
manus.
t 'WaaOnrt.
The
selection of this
word
very observable
see Passow,
who
witf>-
out any reference to Scripture, shows

reconciliation effected through
alecta, in loc.) has right
how
:
IXdaKoiiai
implies not reconciliation only, but
some
gift,
or sacrifice, or offering; so that Kocher {An-
toriam propitiationis,
dat et indicet.
t
when he says nempe cruentam
Earn vocis
iXdadrtre
vim
esse, ul
causam meri-
Christi passionem et
mortem^ simul comprehen-
Augustine {In Evang. Joh., Tract. 12)
Qui
confitetur peccata sua et accusal

:
peccata sua, jam

geris Deo.
cum Deo
ipse
facit.
Accusat Deus pieccata tua
si
et lu accusas,
conjun-
Quasi duje res sunt,
homo
fecit.
et
peccator.
Quod
audis homo, Deus fecit
quod audis peccator,

Oporlet ut odcris
homo
Dele quod
in te
fecisti, ut
Deus
salvet
quod
c.
fecit.
;
in te
opus tuum,
ct
ames
ille
opus Dei.
Cf Serm. 36,
ille
11
and
Enarr. in Ps.
cebat ut
ille
Ixvi. 5.
Of
this publican
he says {Enarr. in Ps. xxxix): Sibi non paignosceret, se puniebat ut

;
parceret, se agnoscebat ut
ieStKaioyidfos
5)
liberaret.
The
reading
I
was an unauthorized emendation in the Elzevir edition, which has since held its place in the text. The quesyup inctvof, which has far the greater amount of outtion lies between the readings
Testaments, has,
for
it
... CKCtvni believe, no MS. authority

?;
which
is
the lectio recepta of our

It
Greek
whatever.
ward
authorit
in its favour, but is hardly intelligible,
and
nof' iKcii/ov,
which, with leas

he
justified in the secret,
to his
399
unsearchable counsels of God, but he '^went
down
deed
house justified," with a sweet sense of a received forgiveness

;
shed abroad upon his heart

a transitive act,
for
God's justification of the sinner

to its object.
is
in-
and passes from him
The
other
mean-
while went down from the temple, his prayer being finished, with the
same mean
cold,
dead heart, with which he had gone up.
Christ does not
that
one by comparison with the other was

in justification,
justified, for there
are
no degrees
but that one absolutely was justified,
was con-
templated of
God as a righteous man, and the other was not;* so that here the words found their fulfilment, " He hath filled the hungry with
be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly, but the proud he knoweth
good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away ;" " Though the Lord
(Ps. cxxxviii. 6
fitly
afar off."
Isai.
Ivii.
15
Pet. v. 5, 6.)t
And
the
al-
whole parable
concludes with that weighty saying, which had
ready formed part of another of the Lord's discourses, (xiv. 11,) and
which, indeed, from the all-important truth which
it
contains, might well
have been often uttered
" For every one that exalteth himself shall he

exalted;'''''^
abased, and he that kumbleth himself shall be
words which
here form a beautiful transition
to the
bringing of the children to Jesus,
the incident next recorded by our Evangelist.
external support, has yet been received, as

later critical editions.
It is
it
seems
to
me
rightly, into the text of the
probable that
HAP having by mistake
been written
to
TAP,
the
the insertion of 5)
and
the
change oi iKcvToi' into Uclvos followed, as needful

at all.
make
words render up any sense

*
It is
characteristic that this should be denied by nearly all the chief
commentators
is to
of the
Roman
Church, though in
fact this is the very truth
which the parable
teach.
Thus Maldonatus: Non significatur aut publicanum verfe justificatum fuisse, aut verfe damnatum Pharisaeum, quanquam ita Euthymius intelligit. He might have added many more who so understand it Tertullian, for instance, {Adv. Marc.,\. 4, c. 36,)
;
affirms: Alterum reprobatum,alterum justificatum descendisse

fiuperbia in Pharisaeo de temple
and Augustine
Nam
Dei
damnata descendit,
in the parable
et humilitas in publicano ante
oculos approbata ascendit.

t Augustine says of these
two
(Enarr. in Ps.
. .
xciii.
12)
Ille
super-
bus erat
in bonis factis, ille humilis in malis factis.
Placuit
Deo magis humilitas

will not bear
facta, but
in malis factis, qua,m superbia in bonis.
These are striking words, yet
any
close examination.
is
There may
malis
he,
and was
here, a humilitas post

is
mala
there
no humilitas
it
in
factis, since in
every s\n there

lift
a root of deadly pride out

;
of which
grows, a daring of the creature to

is
itself
up against the Creator
and
again, there
no
possibility of
a superbia in bonis, since they cease to be good in which
this pride mingles.

i
Augustine
;
Videte, fratres, miraculum

te
;
magnum,
altus est
Deus
erigis te, et fugit

::
te
humilias te,et descendit ad
and of
;
this Pharisee
(Enarr. 2* in Ps. xxxi. 4)
Noluit humiliari confessione iniquitatis suae
humiliatus est pondere manfis Dei.
400
THE POUNDS.
PARABLE XXX.
THE POUNDS
Luke
xix.
11-27.
The
chiefest part of
what might
else
have been said upon
this parable,
has been anticipated in that of the Talents.

this to be not the
The
reasons for affirming
same, but another parable, have been already given.
Not
the
to
speak of the
many and
important variations between the two
variations so important that the
two accounts can scarcely be records
O'f
same discourse
its
the
parables bear the most decisive marks, each

it
one, of
adaptation to the peculiar circumstances under which

;
is
recorded as having been spoken

not
fit
while in each case, the other would
the time or place at all so well.*
But on
this
matter
it
will
be
needless to repeat, save exceedingly briefly, vvhat has been already said.
We
are
first
informed what the motive of the parable was

to
and spake a parable, because he was nigh thought that the kingdom of God should
for Christ,
Jerusalem,,
ivimediately
"iJe added and because they appear. ^^ It was

:
uttered then to repress impatience, to teach the need of a patient waiting
and not merely
that,
:
but also of an active working for him
during the time of his absence
such was
its
had joined themselves entirely
to
him, and had placed themselves
aim as regarded those who to him

But be had also
in the relation of servants to their
Lord and Master.
other hearers on this his last journey to Jerusalem, such as had not in-
deed thus attached themselves
to
him, but a multitude drawn together by
wonder, by curiosity, and by other mingled motives.
These, though
now having
a certain good will
toward Christ and his doctrine, and

in
though being, so long as they were
his
presence, to a considerable
to all the
degree under his influence, yet not the less were exposed
influences of their age, and liable to be
evil
drawn presently
into the
fast
mighty
against
stream of hostility which was now running so fiercely and so
him
and
this
especially, wjien
his death
in
his
own
person he was no more

his
lofty pretensions.
among them, when
had seemed
to belie
Clirysostom {In Matth
Horn. 78) distinctly affirms fliem to be different, and had

his
not Augustine believed ihem so,
tensu
we may confidently assume that in Evang he would have soupht to bring them into harmony.
,
work, De Con-
THE POUNDS.
For them
citizens
is
401
14-27) concerning the
meant
that part of the parable (ver.
who
hated to have their countryman set over them as their Iving,

for a while, sent after
at his
and as soon as he had withdrawn from them

fearful penalties of their hatred and defiance.
him
msesages, disclaiming iiim for their lord, but who
return paid the
Rome, and afterunmade kings, such a circumstance as that which serves for the groundwork of Thus Herod this parable can have been of no unfrequent occurrence. the Great was at first no more than a subordinate officer in Judaea,* and flying to Rome before Antigonus, was there declared by the senate, through the influence of Antony, king of the Jews. In like manner his son Archelaus had personally to wait upon Augustus in Rome, before
In the great
its
Roman
empire, wherein the senate of
wards
emperors, though not kings themselves, yet made and
he inherited his father's dominions, which he then

but only as ethnarch.
did, not indeed as king,
History furnishes
many
other examples, for
it
was
and
felt
over the world, in the words of the historian of the Macca-
bees, "
whom they [the Romans] would help to a kingdom, those reign, whom again they would, they displace." (1 Mace. viii. 13.) That
is
he who should thus seek and obtain a kingdom was one well-born, a "moileman,''
only what
we
should naturally expect, as

lift
it
would be
little
likely that
any other would
his
hopes so high, or would have such
probability of being able to maintain himself on his throne, as
would ren-
Nor is who was of such noble birth as he, who, even according to the flesh, came of earth's first blood was the Son of Abraham, the Son of David who was besides the eternal and only-begotten Son of God ? The kingdom which this nobleman goes to receive, can scarcely be,
der
it
likely that the higher authority

its
would
install
him
there.
this
circumstance without
deeper significance,
for
as some understand
it,
another kingdom, at a distance from the land of
his birth, but rather he goes to receive the investiture of that
kingdom,
and
whereof before he was only one of the more
illustrious citizens,
its
which
after a
it is
while he returns to reign over as
king.
Either sup-
position,
true,
would
suit his case,
whom
7,
this
nobleman represents
he went
over
it.
to
be enthroned in his heavenly state, and in heaven to rule
all
as the
it
Son of man
(Heb.
ii.
;)
thus Theophylact explains

to
But
might with equal truth be said that he went
receive solemn
investiture of that earthly kingdom,

blood,
and which hereafter he shall

his father
which he had purchased with his return and claim as his own, sitting
the circumstances of the narra-
on the throne of
David
and
;
tive evidently point to the last as the corrector
view of the matter.
It
* First Procurator
afterwards,
crrpari/yJj.
402
was
THE POUNDS.
not over strangers, but over his fellovv-citizens, that the nobleman
to solicit a
departed
dominion
else
would there be no meaning

to
in their
message, "
We
will not have this
man
reign over i/s;" whether these

his purpose to
words imply, as generally taken, that they, hearing of

and
solicit the
go
kingdom, give him notice beforehand that they

that
will yield
him no obedience,
ance
to
however he may receive

is
at other
hands the do-
minion over them, they will not acknowledge his

him,
rule,
is
nor
own
allegi-
or whether, as
more probable,
to the
it
a message, or an
embassage
exaltation
rather,
which they send
court whither he has gone, to
anticipate and counter-work
would be
It
him
there, to declare
*'
We
do not desire that this
how unwelcome his man should be made

Jews, in the
our king."*
was exactly thus
that a faction of the

to the
case of Archelaus, sent ambassadors
court of Augustus to accuse
him
there,
and
if possible to
hinder his elevation over them.
So again
his fellow-
we
find
him on
his return exercising kingly functions
among
citizens
setting his servants
over
five cities,
and over
ten
having
power of life and death, and executing extreme judgment on those that had refused to admit his authority. There can hardly then be a question but that the kingdom which he goes to receive, is not any other,
but that very same of which he was himself originally a citizen.
Before however he went,

servants of
his,"!"
'"/te called his ten
servants" or rather, ten
" and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them,
Occupy \
till
come.''
The sum
here delivered to the servants

St.
is
very
much
smaller than that which, in
Matthew, the man who was travelThis

is
ling into a far country committed to his servants' keeping.
at
once explained,
apostles,
if
we keep
this is
in
mind how
that parable
was spoken
to the
who
of course had received infinitely the largest gifts of
from Christ, while

ties
spoken
to the disciples generally,
any whose facul-
were comparatively fewer.

The speaking
How
remarkable
is
this still ministry,
of him in the third person, " this man," (tovtov,) seems a strong
npeaffcia is
confirmation of this view, and
an embassage rather than a message.

would be absurd
(See
Luiie xiv. 32.)

t
Besides that the original requires
this, it
to
suppose that, with the
immense households
lies, (see
of antiquity, which, as Seneca says, were nations rather than fami1, p. lOG,) this
Becker's Gallvs,\.
nobleman, of consequence enough

to
to
be
raised to a royal dignity,

+
had but ten servants belonging
him.
npny/iartiiiTiKTOt,
pare pecuniam, because

fact occupied or
Employ in trading. " Occupy," is here a Latinism. Thus, occumoney in business, or put out to interest, does not lie idle, is in employed. So in Nortu's Plutarch, p. 629, Phocion refusing Alex-
ander's
gift
it
says, " If I should take this
sum
of
money and occupy
it
not,
it
is
as
much
as
had
(j
not."
talent
and Rom.
Antt.,9. v.
was = i;243 15s.; a pound (mina) = je4 Is.M. Drachma, p. SCO.
(See the Diet, of Gr.
THE POUNDS.
be engaged, and that too while a rebellion was going on.
403
these occupations of peace in which the servants of the future king should
caviller
to
remarkably enough asks, "

servants
?
Why
did he not distribute
weapons
his
Such would have been under present circumstances the most

felt
natural thing to have done." Doubtless the most natural, as Peter
when he cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest, as all have felt, who have sought to fight the world with its own weapons, and by the wrath of man to work the righteousness of God. Such identifying of
the
Church with a worldly kingdom has been
the idea of the Papacy,
such of the Anabaptists.
Men
in either case feeling strongly that there
must be a kingdom of God, have supposed

into this
that
it
was immediately
tliat
to
it
appear, (ver. 11,) and that they, and not Christ himself, were to bring
outward form and subsistence

still
instead of seeing
to
their part
was, with the
and
silent
occupation of their talent,

to
lay the rudi-
which outbreaking should yet

returned in his glory.
ments of
that
kingdom, and so
prepare the world

not actually
for its
outbreaking,
come
to pass, till the
King
The Jews were

to the flesh,
especially Christ's fellow-" citizens,^' for, according
he was of the seed of Abraham, a

;
Jew and a member

in his life,
of the
Jewish polity
and they hated him not merely

to his
and
until his
departure out of this world, but every persecution of his servants

stoning of Stephen
the the beheading of Jamesthe persecutions of Paul,

people for his name's sake,
all
and
all
the
wrongs which they did

his,
and because they were
were each and

upon their
messages of defiance sent

"
after him, implicit declarations
part,
We
will not have this
man
to
reign over us."
very declaration found formal utterance from their

they cried
they
said,
how twice this once when to Pilate, " We have no king but Caesar;" and again, when " Write not. The King of the Jews." When we give this pawell observes,
lips,
And Theophylact
rable a wider range, and find the full accomplishment of

contains, not at the destruction of Jerusalem, but at the
all
which
it
day of judgment,
and
tion,
it
is
equally capable of the narrower and the wider interpreta-
then these rebellious citizens will

such
evil
to Jesus, as their
no longer be merely the Jews,

their relation
but
all
men, as by word or deed openly deny
and subjection
throw
Lord and King,
(in this different
from
the unfaithful servant, for he allows the relation, and does not openly
off the subjection,
but yet evades the obligation by the false
glosses of his
own
heart,)
and their message will have
its full
and
final
fulfilment in the great apostasy of the last days,

this
is,
which
6
shall be
even as
not an evading merely of the subjection due unto Christ, but a

xiii. 5,
;
speaking of great things against him, (Rev.
Dan.
vii.
25,)
not merely disobedience, but defiance, even such as shall not be content
404
THE POUNDS.
to the
with resisting his decrees, but shall anticipate and challenge him
conflict: "
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
The
Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." On the following verses (15-23) there is little to say which has not been said in another place. At his return, the nobleman distributes
praise and rewards to
them
that have been faithful to

less severe, to
away,
punishments, more or
him while he was them who have abused the
opportunity, and taken advantage of his absence.*
The rewards which
he imparts
to his faithful servants,
are royal, and this consistently with
cities :f
which he is now invested ; he sets them over while the rewards imparted were quite different in the other parable (Matt. XXV. 14-30) for there the mftster being but a private man
the royal dignity, with
would have no such power of setting his servants in high places of authority. This is worthy of notice, as an example of the manner in which each parable is in perfect keeping and harmony with itself through all its minor details, which is another reason for believing them
originally distinct from one
another.
The rewards
set
too,
as they are
:
kingly, so are they also proportioned to the fidelity of the servants
he
whose pound had made five pounds was pound had made ten was set over ten.
over
five cities,
he whose
We hear nothing of the other seven servants, but need not therefore conclude that they had wholly
* This, of course,
is
borrowed from the
life,
and
is
what
in
often
must have happened.
We
may compare
the conduct of Alexander, rewarding and punishing after his return
from his long Indian expedition, from which so

that he never
p.
many
Western Asia had believed

v. 7,
would come back,
(See the Bishop of St. David's Hist, of Greece,
62,seq.)
t Such a method of showing grace to servants
was not uncommon

p.
in the East.
Barhebraus (quoted by Haver.vick, Comm.
lib.
Dan.,
87)
tells
of a slave,
who
giving
proofs of his prudence and dexterity in business, his master, the Sultan Zangi, exclaimed,
"
It is fit to
give such a
man
as this,
command
over a city," and at once he
made him
in these
governor of the fortress Kurisch, and sent him

words, "
thither.
cannot find the force
Have thou
authority over ten cities, &c.," which Mr.
Greswell does,
when
they supply him wiih a convincing argument in favour of the millennial views, {Exp.
of the Par.,
ed
literally ?
v. 4, p. .501,) for
why
should this image of ruling over cities be interpret-
nay, being found
in a parable,
must
it
not be accepted as an image only,

seel; to
which we are not

for the truth
little
to hold fast in the letter, but,
on the contrary, must

is,
exchange
which underlies
it?
That
truth certainly
to
that he
to
here, (and all here
is little
compared
what
is
coming,)
who is faithful in a him much will be inno wise
trusted in a future age. defined, though this,
But more than
this,
or what that
much
will be, is in
which Bengel notes on these " ten
cities," is doubtless true:
Mag-
na rerum amplitude ac varietas in regno Dei, quamvis nondum nobis cognita. We only know, in Calvin's words: Nunc tanquam absentia negotia la'.*orios6 curamus
tunc ver6 ampla et multiplex honorum copia
ei
ad
manum
suppetet, qua. magnified nos
exomet.
THE POUNDS.
lost or
405
wasted the money intrusted to them ;* rather that the three who come forward are adduced as specimens of classes, and the rest, while all that we are to learn is learned from the three, for hrevity's sake are omitted. Those who stand by, and who are bidden to take his pound from the slothful servanf,f and give it to him that had shown himself the faithfulest. or, at least, the ablest of all, are clearly the angels, who
never
fail to
appear and take an active part
in all
scenes descriptive of
the final judgment.:}:
When
the
king had thus distributed praise and blame, rewards and
penalties, to thsoe
who
stand in the
more immediate
relations of ser-
vants to him, to those of his
own
to
household,
household of God,
on
he
for the
Church
is
the
proceeds
execute vengeance on his enemies?
all
who had openly

to his
cast off allegiance to him, and denied that they
belonged
house
at all.
(Prov. xx. 8.)

;
At
his
command
was
they are
greater,
brought before him, and slain before his face

so their punishment
is
as their guilt
more
terrible than
that of the slothful servant.
In the Marriage of the King's Son (Matt. xxii. 1) the vengeance on the
open enemies goes before that on the hypocritical friend or servant

*
Thus Ambrose {Exp.

It is
in
Luc,
1.
8, c. 95)
De
aliis siletur,
qui quasi prodigi de-
bitores,
quod acceperant, perdideiunt.

characteristic that the aovSuptov (sudarium) which, not exerting himself, this
idle servant
does not need for

iii.
its
proper use, (" in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat
bread," Gen.
19,)
he uses for the wrapping up of his pound.

turned to this purpose,
That he had
it
disen-
gaged, and so free

t
to be
was
itself a
witness against him.
Dschelaleddin,
whom Von Hammer

little
speaks of as the great religious poet of the

resting on the
modern
East, has an interesting
poem
same idea as
faculties, as a
that of the pre-
sent parable,
namely,
God.
that of
life
with
all its
powers and
sum
of
money
to be laid out for
As
it is
brief I will subjoin a translation,
made, indeed, through
the
German. (See Ruckert's Gedichte,\.
2, p. 451.)
thou that art arrived in being's land.

;
Nor knowest how thy coming here was planned From the Schah's palace to life's city, thou On his affairs wert sent, at his command. Thee thy Lord gave, thy faithfulness to prove. The sum of life, a capital in hand.
Hast thou forgotten thine entrusted pound
1
Stunned with the market's hubbub dost thou stand?

Instead of dreaming, up and purchase good
;
Buy precious
stones,
exchange not gold
for sand.
Thou at the hour of thy return wilt see Thy Monarch set, with open book in hand.
What thou from him receivedst, he will bring To strict account, and reckoning will demand And a large blessing, or a curse from him, Thy faithfulness or sloth will then command.
406
here
is
it
it
THE POUNDS.
follows after.
This slaying of the king's enemies
his presence,
not to be in the interpretation mitigated or explained
away, as though
belonged merely to the outer shell of the parable, and was only added
because such things were done in Eastern courts, (1 Sam. x. 27 ; xi. 12; Jer. lii. 10,) and to add an air of truthfulness to the narrative.
Rather
it
belongs also to the innermost kernel of the parable.
words
set forth, fearfully indeed, but not in
any way
in wliich
The we need
shrink from applying them to the Lord Jesus, his unmitigated wrath
against his enemies,
of
all rigliteousness,
but only which

10.)
his
enemies exactly as they are enemies

be revealed in that day
shall
when grace
shall
have come
to
an end, and judgment without mercy will have beAll this found
its
gun.*
(Rev. xiv.
nearest fulfilment in the
overthrow of Jerusalem, and in the terrible calamities which went be.

fore
and followed
;
it
that
was, without
doubt, a
coming of Christ
to
judgment
but
it
will find its full
accomplishment, when the wickedness

to
of an apostate world, having come
a single head, shall in that single
head receive
his armies.
its final
doom,
in the final destruction of Antichrist
and
* Augustine often uses this and the parallel passage Matt. xxii. 13, (as Con. Adv.
Leg.
et
Proph.,
1.
l,c. 16
Con. Faust.
1.
22,
c.
14, 19) in
argument with the Manithe lenity

be,
chaeans,
who, contrasting the severity of the God of the Old Testament with
of the
of the
God
New, would have proved

is
that they
were not, and could not
one
and
the same.
But, he replies, there

is fear,
no such contrast.
As
there
is
love in the Old
Testament, so there
and that which should awaken
fear, in the
New
and he
alleges the terribleness of this
doom
in proof.
selves to their ordinary evasion, that the
The Manicheeans could not betake thempassage was an interpolation or a corruption,

1.
as they accepted the parables (see Augustine, Con. Faust.,
32,
c. 7,) for
part of the
thine ene-
uncorrupted doctrine of Christ.
We may compare Heb.

x.
i.
13, "
till
make
mies
Ih
If
footstool,"
and we learn from Josh.
24,
what the image
is,
that lies
under
these words.
INDEX.
Doctrine not to be grounded op Para'AKpoyiiitnain?,
168
n.
bles, 37.
Avu('jia,259 n.
Donatist idea of the Church, 71-73, 82,

108.
Aov\vtv,
Apsffavoi/,
AvartXAfd', 59 n.
Ancient Christianity, &c., 80 n.
328
239.
n.
Angels
rejoicing, SO'i.
feet,
Anointing of our Lord's

Antichrist, 81.
230.
Ecclesiastes
;
E.
a
commentary on
the Par-
Apostacy of the heathen world, 309.

'Aowrwf, 310
AvTOjiaTOi,
n.
able of the Pearl, 107 n.

'EK0'i\\iiv ^0)
holiness of
n.
the Catholic
229
n.
Church, 113.
B.
'Ex'Xii/iTrtii',
85
"EtoiiîJ yifjov,
182
n.
Baptism, 126, 128, 317.

Buffai'iarZ/s,
Envy
expressed by the eye, 147 n.
126
n.,
n.
Esther's history applied, 191 n.
Bengel, 178
B105,
325
n.
'Eratpoi,
147 n.
307
n.
EvXa/?(a,219 n.
Byssus, 358 n.
F.
C.
Fables, two in the Old Testament, 10 n.
Calling of the Gentiles, 180.
Faith the
:
root of Charity, 187,
240
n.
Characters of different Gospels marked

in the Parables they record, 29, 30.
its
nature, 371.
Christ as the
in the
Good Shepherd
all
a symbol
and works, 196.
Feasts in the East often political, 172 n.
Enriy Church, 298 n.

things," 163.
Fides formata, 239.
" the heir of

his second
coming, 200.
386.
Galilteans,
Liinov
G.
Church
in conflict here,
lost,
270
n.
n.
of,
seeking her
301.
St.
iTotcti'f ]
73
Classical phrases frequent in
Luke,
Genesareth, lake
55.
306
n.
Covetousness, 263.
Harmony between
D.
AstTTvov,
things seen and un-
seen, 18-21.
281
n.
Hezekiah's reformation (2 Chron. xxx.

10) a parallel to "
Denarius, 139 n.
AuôSos, 179
AiVaio;, 125.
n.
The Marriage
of the
King's Son," 178 n.

Historico-prophetic School of interpreters,
Discipline in the Church, 83.
41.
the Jews, 140 n.
Distortion of the Parables by the Gnostics
Hours of
and
others, 38,
&c.
Hymn
of Prudentius,
294
n.
408 Two
INDEX.
Interpretation of
Parables by our
Uaiihv, 259
Parable
:
n.
it
Lord, 34.
J.
wherein
(ii.)
differs
from
(i.)
The
(iii.)
fable, 10.
The
14.
proverb,
The mythus, (iv.) The 13.
12.
allegory,
Judaea
its
natural position, 157.
Justin Martyr's Conversion, 100.
Parables in use before our Lord's time,

44.
K.
Ka\uv and
lârapyeXv,
'Kaiixctii),
kXiTo-ij
of
other
invitation,
than
n.
out
Lord's,
(i.)
280
n.
Jewish, 45-50, 191
(ii.)
Christian,
276
n.
n.
50-55.
acted, 28.
the
144
Kepiirioc,
312
n.
Seven of
St.
Matthew
xiii.
lêpaXaiow, 161 n.
54
L.
their relation, 115.
" Labourers in the Vineyard"
Jewish
"
of " The Ten The Marriage of the
Virgins" and
King's Son,"
and Mahometan
ble,
Version of the Para-
their difference, 208.
143
of" The Talents," and " The

Pounds," different, 400.
n.
Lamp,
small,
204
n.
n.
Lazarus, 359
of "The Marriage of the King's
Leaven, 92
n.
Son," and "
The Great Supper" comn. to
Lenity of supposition in our Lord's Parables, 186.
pared, 170,287.
YlapaiTcladai,
283
Ilapad
Arivoi,
Ai<TO(,.
158
n.
why applied
217
n.
Caperna-
AiKjiav, 1G9
um, 55
n.
n.
n.apaTt6i/ni,
69 n.
liifieats,
M.
Maldonatus, 254 n. Mammon, 346 n.
YldpccTis
and
Tlapoijiia, 13.
Hctpi^civ,
$i//o{>i',
242
n.
n.
Man
Men
of Sin, 186.
185
Marcion, 175 n.
<I>p(iy/io?
156 n.
compared
63 n.
to trees,
274.
Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory, 15 n.

YWcovcÛi, 261 n.
M^pi'/î'a,
MtjsiuTiij,
262
n.
Il\ovTiveiiQc6v (St.Lukexii. 15), 263 n.

Yluvripoiijin the
and fjcrat/oia, 153 n. Metayer system of letting Estates, 160 n. Midnight, Christ's second coming at,
Mtro/jfAtio
Lord's Prayer, masculine,
387
n.
Prayer, 383.
202.
Pro-parabola and epi-parabola, 36.

Publicans, 304.
like to Parables, 21.
Millennium, 194.
Miracles, in
what
Purgatory, 129.
Mustard-tree, 88 n.
UiwY
158
n.
Putting on Christ, 187.
N.
Naboih's death a type of Christ's, 165
National
life,
n.
R.
165.
Readings of the Greek Testament

xviii.
Matt,
Nature's present bondage, 21.
28, 124 n.
xxi. 30, xxi. 44,

OiKovSitoi,
152 168
n. n.
and 153.
332
n.
XXV. 13, 208 n.
INDEX.
Luke
xvi. 9,
409
of,
xviii. 14,
348 n. 398
Supererogation, works
n. n.
205, 383.
Swedenborg, 39
n.
Reward',
A^j'
meaning, 149
T.
Talent
:
Righteousness not
o/
S.
the
Law, 250.
use of the
word in
English, 214.
'Tc\e(T(popciv,
63 n.
n.
Tc^civrj;,
288
Sacraments and the CViurch, 252, 253. Sayijj"/, 110 n.

Salmeron's division of a Parable,
3fi n.
TertuUian, 304.
Qrjiravpo;,
To/ci5f,
98 n.
n.
221
Samaritans not a mingled people, 246

Sarpiis,
u.
Traditional saying cf our Lord, 221 n.

Tribulation: derivation of the word, 61
n.
112
n.
Satan and his agency progressivley unfolded in Scripture, 75.
Types
= Parables,
28.
Typical personages, 23.
" Seventy times seven," 118.
Siloam, 272 n.
Sin and Suffering: their connexion,271 n.
Sins
:
U.
'YiroSiiiiara,
'YTTU}Tna.ê.iv,
323 388
n. n.
whether
if
once forgiven they can
return, 127.
HiKoivSaXoi',
E/ii')!/)),
V.
Vintage and harvest
distinction,
:
84
n.
n.
Bishop Horsley's
349
84
n.
I.K\np6i,
219
n.
Slaves in Antiquity, 213.
W.
Name,
70.
Son of Man
force of the
Standing a posture of prayer in the Early
White Garments, 185 n. meaning of Wilderness

:
the
word
in
Church, 394.
Story illustrative of "
Servant," 131 n.
TiVyKvpia,
Scripture, 293.
The Unmerciful
Works, spoken of in
the
NewTestament,
of three kinds, 274. Z.
245
Toii
n.
aiuvos,
TtvvziXaa
84
n.
Zi^di/iov,
76
n.
THE END.
27
.-..'i
WM
r-sît
BS2418.T793
Notes on the parables of Our Lord
Princeton Theological
Semmary-Speer
Library
1012 00067 8294
ii
^^^
l-^C*
-**-ir
mm/A
'T^-.-
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k;-

NOTES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD.

same Author, for

NOTES ON THE MIRACLES.

CHRIST THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIOJNS;

THE UNCONSCIOUS PROPHECIES OF HEATHENDOM.

THE HULSEAN LECTURES FOR THE YEAR

SERMON ON THE MOUNT,

THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD

RICHARD CHENEYIX TRENCH, M.

professor of divinity, king's college,,

and examinin(j chaplain to the lord bishop of oxford.

FROM THE THIRD ENGLISH

NEW-YORK APPLETON & COMPANY,

OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.

to the mind, is at the

convinces sooner than logical argument, and strikes

Ihe imagination more readily than a living example.*

the fact that

was accustomed by them

to enforce the highest

precepts, to illustrate important points of doctrine,

intimation of future events relating to himself and his mission,

that a competent knowledge of this portion of the Gospels, while

of the greatest value to every

And amply will

these sacred fictions repay the most constant

Attractive in the highest degree, even to childhood, while as yet

hearer " does not know the Lord, nor

the Lord yet revealed to him," (1 Sam.

manhood, and never

the attentive reader, beauties to admire,

* Haec autem docendi ratio, quae facit ad illustrationem anliquis seculis

Parabolae argumentis erant antiquiores.

ADVERTISEMENT OP THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.

wisdom and benevolence of that Heavenly Teacher "who spake as never

the Definition of the Parable

other Parables besides those in the Scriptures

XXIII. The Lost Piece of Money

XXVI. The Rich Man and Lazarus

....... ..... ...... ...... .....

XXVIII. The Unjust Judge

Pharisee and the Publican

XXX. The Pounds

ON THE DEFINITION OF THE PARABLE.

who have had occasion

define a parable * do not

give such a satisfying definition

distinguishing marks, and yet at the

include nothing that was superfluous and merely accidental.

will seek to note briefly

and such other forms of composition as most closely border

In the process of thus distinguishing

composition, with which

and therefore most

HapaPoXi], from napa.SdWeiv, projicere, objicere,

before or beside another

assumed, when TrapafioMis used

be compared one with the other.

and the whole family of cognate words, as

only the accident, not of the essence of the word.

se praesentissimo vitae periculo, one