ing for him without, upon which he told them that those relations were far inferior to the ties of duty and religion : for the dear names of mother and brother, which are sanctified by the laws of God and nature, are made far more sacred when a spiritual kindred supervenes. And therefore Christ, to signify this office of his to declare the will of his Father, to be dearer to him than all relations, and at the same time to shew that obedience to God was above all things most welcome to him, he tells them, that natural and secular considerations weighed nothing with him in comparison of the gaining Proselytes to heaven. And turning to his disciples, he said, "Behold my mother and my brethren;" subjoining for a reason, "Whosoever doth the will of my Father which is in heaven proves thereby that he is a child of God, and consequently brother of Christ; on whom he setteth a greater value, than paying a civility to those who are, in carnal respects, nearer to him.

The Pharisees, who were always seeking for occasions of finding fault with our blessed Lord, observing that he still persisted in performing miracles, and particularly in casting out Demons, renewed the old accusation;-" He casteth out devils by Beelzebub." Which senseless objection Christ having already confuted, arraigned them solemnly with the guilt of an unpardonable crime; assuring them that their so charging those actions, which he performed by the energy of the divine Spirit, was a sin against the Holy Ghost. And however they might make bold with the Son of man,* and though prevarica

Son of Man. The phrase Son of Man, in Matt. xii. 32, belongs to Christ as he appeared in the weakness of human nature, the son of Mary, abstracted from the great power of his doctrine and miracles. The sin therefore against the Son of Man was pardonable; but the resisting and opposing (which is often expressed by speaking) the Holy Ghost was unpardonable.

The quality of the Son of Man is often very ambiguous; and therefore we must take these words, "Son of Man," in their proper signification, and retain them still where our Saviour is evidently understood, who has been pleased to take this title particularly to himself. Sometimes it signifies Jesus Christ, sometimes a man of low degree; as in Matt. viii. 10, and in Matt. xii. 32. This is likewise the sense of it, as many of the learned allow, in 1 Sam. ii. 25. But that which renders this interpretation more probable is this; that St. Mark makes no mention of the VOL II. Oo

tions against his words, or injuries to his person might, upon repentance, find pardon; yet it was a matter of greater consideration to sin against the Holy Ghost, for that would obtain no pardon here, or hereafter: and taking this occasion of reprehending the Jews for their obstinacy and ingratitude, he, by a mysterious and ingenious parable, gives the world a solemn caution against relapsing and backsliding after repentance: "To you," says he, "that having received such means of conversion and repentance, such miracles, and particularly casting out devils, have not yet duly improved by them, I shall now apply this parable, Matt. xii. 43, &c, the meaning of which is, that this nation (out of which I came to cast the power of Satan, to bind the strong man, and to take from him his usurped possessions) doth appear so resolute to resist all my methods, as to blaspheme that Holy Spirit by whom I work and then what is to be expected, but that the devils ejected by me, in my Father's name, finding no where among the heathen such desirable habita tions of rest and contentment as among you, shall endeavour to re-enter here, with others worse than themselves, and take a lasting possession? So the last estate of this people is likely to be more desperate than it was at first." On the same day our blessed Lord went to the sea-side,* where being again encompassed with a vast concourse of people, he went on board a vessel, from whence he taught the people on the shore: but he taught them by parables, under which were hidden the mysteries of the kingdom of life. By the parable of the sower, scattering the seed by the way-side, and some on stony, some on thorny, and some on good ground, he intimated the several dispositions of men's hearts, the carelessness of some, the frow ardness and levity of others, the easiness and soft

blasphemy against the Son of Man, saying only that “all sins and blasphemies shali be forgiven unto the sons of men, Mark iii. 28, which shews that there is no question here of a particular sin against the Son of God, which St. Mark had not failed to have mentioned if any such thing had been designed by that expression.

• Sea-side

This was the lake of Genesareth, otherwise called the sea of Tiberias, from a town of that name, which stood on the banks of the lake.

Bess of a third, and how they are diverted from a believing reception of the word by worldliness and care; how many ways there are to miscarry, and that but one sort of men," out of several, receive the word, and bring forth the fruits of a holy life. But his disciples, wondering that he should speak so mystically and obscurely to the people, asked him, why he did so? To whom he gave this answer: "To understand the deeper and more obscure parts of the gospel is a privilege only belonging to you disciples, who are believers already, and have given up yourselves to my direction; but these have not done so. Whosoever hath made use of the advantages given him by God, shall have more given him, as in the seed that fell on good ground, he shall have an abundant increase; but whosoever shall not make use of what he hath, and so by his own fault falleth into poverty, shall not only be denied more, but shall be deprived of what he hath; the means of grace shall be taken from him upon his wilful continuance in sin." This was the reason our Saviour gave his disciples for his speaking in parables, to which he subjoins another: "I spake, says he, to them in parables, because* seeing they see

• Because, &c. Though our blessed Lord spake to the people in the most plain and intelligible manner, yet they were so stupid, as not to perceive and understand him. These texts of St. Matt. xiii. 13, St. Mark iv. 12, and St. Luke viii. 10, do in the Greek all agree; but are differently and wrongly translated in the English, and seem to make our Saviour speak to the multitude in parables, that is, in a plain and familiar way, that they may not perceive or understand them; which is contrary to the design of Christ's coming into the world, and continuing so long in it; which was to reform mankind, and, by his holy life and heavenly doctrine, to turn men from their wicked ways, and put them in the way that leads to eternal happiness. The mistake in the translation must proceed from the false rendering the word ina in St. Mark, and St. Luke, which St. Matthew expresses by boti, both which words signify in this place because. That of St. Mark therefore ought literally to run thus: "because seeing they do see, and not perceive, and so on :" that of St. Luke thus ; " because seeing they see not, and hearing they understand not." But St. Matthew is positively most expressive; "because they seeing see not, and so on." The natural import of which is, That the Jews, by reason of their prejudices, not being capable to understand high things, our Saviour, out of love to their souls, accommodates himself to their capacities, by speaking to them in parables; that is, in metaphors and similitudes borrowed from temporal and bodily things, to bring them to the understanding of his doctrine.

not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. By which was fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet foretold of God's dealing with an obstinate people, who would not receive or entertain the truth, though never so plainly represented to them. And this was a just judgment of God upon them for their former obstinacy, who shut their eyes, and stopped their ears, that they might not be converted; wherefore God, on his part, would, in his just judgment, withdraw such precious knowledge from them, that it might not be exposed to farther contempt."

By the three parables of the seed growing together with the tares; of the mustard-seed swelling to a great tree; and of a little leaven qualifying the whole lump, our blessed Saviour signified the increase of the gospel under persecution and difficulties, and his blessing upon the apostolic word. By the kingdom of heaven he means the state of the gospel, which he likens to a man that sowed good sced, among which an enemy scattered tares, and which the servants offered to weed up; but the good man forbad it, because the tares are so mixed with the wheat, that one cannot be pulled up without endangering the other, especially when they are not perfectly discernible. Let them therefore both grow up together till the harvest, that is, till the day of judgment, when I will send the reapers, that is, will appoint angels as officers to separate the wheat from the tares, meaning the good from the wicked.

The state of the gospel is of such an increasing nature, both in the world, and in the heart of man, where it is received, that it is fitly compared to a grain of mustard seed ;* which being one of the least seeds, yet when it

Mustard. That a mustard-seed grows into a tree, is affirmed by St. Matt. xiii: 32, and St. Luke xiii. 19. Which must not be measured by what we see of this seed among us, but by considering the Hebrew soil and clime, of which this is ordinarily affirmed among their authors, who mention a bough of a mustardtree that yielded wood enough to cover a little house. And whereas in St. Matthew it is said to be the least of all seeds, though among us other seeds may be found less than that, as rue and poppy, yet it does not necessarily follow it should be so there. However, it is apparent, that the smallness of it was proverbial among the Jews.

grows up prosperously, it becomes larger than any thing that comes from a seed, and among the Jews grows into a tree with boughs large enough for birds to roost and lodge in.

Again, the gospel hath such a secret invisible influence on the hearts of men, to change and effect them and all their actions, that it is properly compared to leaven, which is so thoroughly mixed with the whole, that although it appeareth not in any part of it visibly, yet every part hath a tincture from it.

By speaking thus in parables, our blessed Saviour fulfilled what was before spoken by the prophetic Psalmist.* "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." After this, he dismissed the multitude, and retired into a house; where his disciples, taking the opportunity of privacy there, desire him to explaint the former parables to them, which he accordingly did, rendering them into their proper meanings, adding to them two parables more, concerning the dignity of the gospel: in the first of which he compares it to a treasure hid in a field, which a man finding casually hid it again, and con

Psalmist. See Psalm 1xxviii. 2.

+ Explain. By our Saviour's explaining all things to his disciples, when he was alone with them, we may understand that he instructed them in private in his doctrine, enlarged on the meaning of the parables, and likewise informed them of several other things which were neither necessary nor proper to be known by the multitude at that time: so that this expression of St. Mat. xiii. 11. "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not," does not in the least imply, that our Saviour's parables were dark or obscure, and that by speaking to the multitude in them, he had a design to con ceal any truth which was necessary to be known by them, but only that he made a fuller discovery of his doctrine to his disciples, than to the multitude; because his disciples were more disposed to receive it, and were afterwards to be the preachers of it, and to seal the truth of it with their blood. Nor is it any proof of the obscu rity of our Saviour's parables, that the disciples did not understand some of them: for though they were honest and sincere, yet they were often at a loss in ordinary things, of which their not understanding the parable of the sower seems to be an instance, for which our Saviour upbraids them, saying, “Know ye not this par able? How then will ye know all parables ?”