his duty.* How much more must he abandon sin, and vice, and error; evil affections, and tempers, and passions, covetousness and the love of the world; the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. These things are enmity against God, and cannot be reconciled to him, either in this world, or in the next. He hath told us so; and if we will not believe his word, nor regard his warning, we must abide his judgment, and endure his wrath.

If, on the contrary, we suffer ourselves to obey the calls of God, to return to him by patience and faith; putting iniquity away from us, and relying upon his mercy; we shall as surely find redemption from misery, and health to our souls, as Bartimeus found sight to his blind eyes: For "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Let us, then, renouncing the spirit of the world, the concupiscence of the flesh, and the inspirations of satan, attend to the impressions of goodness which we find upon us; for they are the motions of the Spirit of God in us; and if we willingly follow, he will lead us into all truth in believing, and all holiness of living. Light will break in upon the darkness of our mind, and strength succeed to the weakness of nature. Faith will lead us to obey God and trust in him. Love will constrain us to practise all the duties of justice and charity; and purity of heart will shew itself in temperance and sobriety of life. We shall die in hope, and rise to glory and immortality.

* Luke xiv. 26.

Rom. viii. 7. James iv. 4.

# 1 John i. 9.

DISCOURSE VII.

THE BLESSEDNESS OF HAVING EYES THAT SEE AND EARS THAT HEAR.

MATT. xiii. 16.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

To com

O come at the true meaning of these words, it will be necessary to consider the occasion on which they were spoken, and to compare them with similar expressions in Holy Scripture.

Our Saviour having spoken the parable of the sower to the multitude that attended his preaching, his disciples were embarrassed with regard to its meaning, and asked, why he chose to speak to the people in parables, rather than in plain and familiar language? the former being hard to be understood, and liable to misconstruction; the latter easily intelligible, and not subject to misinterpretation. He answered, that he had no intention to conceal his meaning from them; nor from any who, like them, were ready to hear and to obey. To such, said he, “it is given"-it is permitted, allowed-" to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven"-to have them explained so as to be understood by them. But to the multitudethe bulk of the Jewish nation-" it is not given." They have stopped their ears, and shut their eyes, and hardened their hearts against the truth, and have thereby rendered themselves incapable of plain instruction. To them, therefore, the mysteries, or abstruser doctrines of the kingdom of heaven, are not explained in an open and familiar manner. "For whosoever hath"-whosoever improves the means of instruction and hely living which God hath put in his power-" to him shall be given, and he shall

VOL. II,

M

have more abundance"-God will increase the means of his knowledge, will open his heart and enlarge his understanding, that he may comprehend the revelation of his will, as far, at least, as his duty is concerned. "But whosoever hath not"-whosoever makes no proper use of the knowledge, understanding, and opportunities of instruction which he hath, and therefore is as though he had them not-" from him shall be taken away even that he hath," but hath without profit or advantage to himself.

The reason, therefore, why our Saviour spake to the Jews in parables, was not that he affected dark expressions, hard to be understood; but because, through their obstinacy and perverseness, they had rendered themselves incapable of profiting by his instructions, had they been ever so plainly delivered. The experiment, in fact, had been made, and the issue was unfavourable. Soon after he entered on his public ministry, he read and expounded a passage of the prophet Isaiah, in the synagogue at Nazareth-"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he bath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”* When he told them, that the Scripture he had read was that day fulfilled in him, though they acknowledged and admired "the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth," their prejudices were immediately excited-Does this man pretend that the prophecy he hath read is fulfilled in him? Who is he? Is not this Joseph's son," the carpenter? What arrogance to assume so much to himself! However illiberal this conduct was, it excited no resentment in the meek and lowly Jesus. But unreasonable prejudices always hurt the sons who entertain them. To discountenance them, is right; to endeavour to remove them, is kind; and kindness, and a regard to that which is right, excited Christ to attempt it.

per

The Jews had long considered themselves as the pecu

* Luke iv. 16, &c.

liar people of God. They claimed, and to them pertained "the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises" Theirs were " the fathers," and of them, “as concerning the flesh," Messiah or Christ was to come.* These privileges they considered as their birth-right, and could not endure that other nations should share in them. The Scripture which Christ had expounded of himself was general, and contained a commission to extend the blessing of Messiah to the poor, broken-hearted, blind, bruised captives of satan in every nation and country. That this was the design of Almighty God, he had intimated to them, and their passions were alarmed. They expected that Messiah would conquer and subject all nations to their dominion: In that sense they would have allowed, he might be a blessing to the world. But, how could Joseph's son be Messiah? How could he subdue all nations by preaching glad tidings to poor, blind, miserable, broken-hearted objects?

It is the property of goodness, not to be weary in the works of benevolence; of mercy, to be long suffering. One step more the holy Jesus took to calm the passions and abate the prejudices of these unhappy people, and addressed them to the following purpose:-You think all the blessings of Messiah are to be confined to you: But remember, God hath promised him for a blessing to all the families of the earth: To you primarily and particularly, unless you reject the gracious purpose of God towards you. If you do, others will readily receive the glad tidings which you refuse. For however you may construe the promises of God, and appropriate them exclusively to yourselves; he hath, in fact, sometimes passed you over, and employed even his miraculous power for the relief of persons of other nations, in preference to you. In the time of Elijah, when there was no rain for three years and six months, and great_famine prevailed; though there were many widows in Israel who wanted support, the prophet was not sent to one of them, but to

Rom. ix. 4, 5.

a widow woman of Sarepta, a city of Sidon. And though there were many lepers in Israel, in the days of Elisha, none of them were cleansed by him: that blessing was conferred on Naaman the Syrian only. When they heard this, they were filled with wrath, and tumultuously forced him out of the city; intending to throw him headlong from the precipice on which it was built.

From this transaction it is plain, that the generality of the Jews would not have borne to have had the great revolutions in their government and religion, which were then impending, declared in plain language. Necessity, and not choice, therefore, carried Christ into the parabolical method of teaching; and that method he seems constantly to have used, in his public discourses, ever after. In kindness to them he forebore plain declarations; and in apt similitudes represented the approaching destruction of their city, the dissolution of their civil and religious polity, the progress his religion would make in the world, notwithstanding their strong opposition, and the calling in of the nations of the world to partake of the promises which they rejected. While they were attending to a parable, their prejudices were quiet, their passions asleep, and the danger of exciting resentment was much lessened by the time and reflection it took to ascertain its meaning.

This reason our Lord gives of his conduct, "Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not; neither do they understand." These seem to have been proverbial expressions, by which the Jews reproached the inconsiderate and slothful, who neglected to act according to their knowledge and belief. And because they had, through prejudice, worldly views, and attachment to their sins, wilfully shut their eyes against that light which was intended to lighten, not them only, but "every man that cometh into the world," and stopped their ears against his instructions who had "the words of eternal life," he declares the prophecy of Isaiah to be fulfilled in them, which saith, "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is waxed