gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them."* Then followeth the text, "But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear."

Having now considered these words, and shewn their connection with the context, we will endeavour to ascertain their meaning, by comparing them with similar expressions in Holy Scripture.

The phrase of having eyes and not seeing, and ears and not hearing, is common among the prophets. We will first attend to Jeremiah, who addresseth his countrymen in this manner: "O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes and see not, which have ears and hear not." The reason of this sharp rebuke soon follows; they feared not the Lord, but had "a revolting and rebellious heart;" had "revolted and gone:" that is, they obstinately continued in their transgressions, uninformed by instruction, unreclaimed by reproof and correction—“ Among my people," said God, are found wicked men-As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit." Not less than ten times doth God expostulate with his people by the mouth of this prophet, reproaching them for their perverseness in refusing the instructions and admonitions of the messengers he had sent among them, " rising up early and sending them; but they would not hear, they would not hearken, they would not incline their ear." They had perversely shut their eyes and stopped their ears, and resolved, in opposition to all they saw and heard, to continue in their own way. Therefore are they described as having eyes and ears that could neither see nor hear.‡

I shall content myself with citing one passage more on this subject, and that shall be taken from the prophet Ezekiel, to whom God saith, "Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, † Jerem. v. 21.

* Matt. xiii. 14, 15. from Isa. vi. 9, 10.

+ See Jerem. vii. 13. xxv. 3, 4. xxvi. 5. xxix. 19. xxxv. 14, 15. xliv. 4.

and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not; for they are a rebellious house.”* So that rebellion against God in refusing to be governed by his laws, and to receive his instructions and reproofs by his prophets and ministers, is the true meaning of the phrase of having eyes and not seeing, and ears and not hearing.

Thus it fared with the old prophets. And when God sent his Son into the world, having none greater by whom to send, and because all other messengers had proved ineffectual, he found the same temper among his countrymen. He came not only to make expiation for our sins by his death, but also to found a spiritual kingdom of peace and holiness, of grace, and mercy, and truth. When he began to publish his commission, to explain the nature of the kingdom he was about to establish, and to invite men to come into it by repentance and faith, that they might be trained up for eternal life, the Jews shewed the same perversity of temper, the same obstinacy of heart, the same attachment to the world, the same prejudice and resentment against him for attempting to reform them, which the old prophets had experienced from their fathers. That he should, under these circumstances, speak of them in the terms the prophets had used, That they had eyes and saw not, and cars and heard not, was not strange, especially as those terms were well understood by those who heard him. And when he found that their perverseness, and attachment to their prejudices and vices, would not bear plain and open declarations concerning the nature of his kingdom, it was an instance of humility and kindness in him, to deliver those truths in expressions which were figurative, and something obscure, which their prepossessions and passions would not permit them to receive in a plain and familiar dress.

The audiences to which our Saviour spake were mixed. The love of truth brought some to hear him; curiosity others; while not a few came that they might watch his words, and find occasion for censure. Against these last, the parabolical way of speaking was a good guard, and,

Ezek. xii. 2.

i

at the same time, afforded free scope for instruction and reproof. By it the curious were gratified; and while their attention was engaged, and their ears were delighted, their minds oftentimes were informed, and their hearts made better. And the diligent hearer, and candid inquirer after truth, found his parables capable of an easy interpretation, and full of the most excellent and instruc tive meaning.

What our Lord intended principally to reprove, was the rebellious temper of the Jews against Almighty God, manifested by their disregarding his instructions and reproofs. This appears by his applying to them the aforecited prophecy of Isaiah, "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand," &c. The passage of Isaiah to which this refers, is evidently intended to declare God's giving up his people to the consequences of that dulness and deadness of heart, which they had brought on themselves by their obstinate continuance in those sins which his prophets were sent to reprove; and to desolation and destruction, as a punishment for their rebellion and idolatry, in which they had persisted, notwithstanding his repeated calls to repentance: but they would not hear, they would not see, they would not understand. Therefore

they were to lie under the curse of seeing without perceiving, of hearing and not understanding, until their cities. were "wasted without inhabitant," and their "houses without man," and their "land" was " utterly desolate."*

When it is said, "This people's heart is waxed gross," &c. or, "Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy," &c. we are not to suppose that God brings on people an incapacity, or inability to receive divine truth, and to attend to his admonitions and threats. They declare the state into which wicked people have brought themselves, by their vices and lusts. Having eyes, they will not see the fatal tendency of sin and error: Having ears, they will not hear the calls of God's Spirit within them, nor of his word and ministers, to repentance and amendment of life. They "liate to be reformed,"

* Ka. vi, 9-11,

and persist in their impenitency till they become incapable of repenting at all. Then will God "pluck them away," and there shall be "none to deliver them."*

On account of this temper-because they shut their eyes, and stopped their ears, and hardened their hearts against reproof, God gave up the old Jews to desolation and destruction. Christ, finding the same rebellious, obstinate, perverse temper in the Jews of his time, seeing them shut their eyes against the evidence of his miracles, and stop their ears against his instructions, and harden their hearts against his reproofs and calls to repentance, warned them, that they would bring the same curse, and judgments on themselves, which came upon their progenitors: Though they had eyes and ears-capacity and ability to do it-they would not see, nor understand the things that belonged to their peace, till they should be hid from their eyes; that is, till they had rendered themselves incapable of perceiving them; and then their city and temple would so entirely be given up to destruction, that not one stone should be left upon another.

Of this kind, but dreadful warning, they took no notice, but going on in their hardness and impenitency, they filled up the measure of their iniquity by crucifying the Lord of Glory. Still God waited forty years for their amendment but this space they abused, and converted their day of grace into a season of persecuting the Church of God. At length his judgments came upon them like a flood. That dreadful scourge which God had provided for the wicked inhabitants of the earth, the Roman power, wasted their country, besieged, and took, and destroyed their city; many of them were crucified, near a million were sold into slavery, and the residue were banished from Judea, under the penalty of death if they ever returned. God thus visiting on the impenitent children, the innocent blood which their fathers, when they demanded Christ to be crucified, had audaciously imprecated on themselves and their posterity.

In this dreadful state of dispersion over the whole world,

* Psalm 1. 17, 22.

and in the more dreadful state of dereliction of God, having eyes that see not, and ears that hear not, and hearts that understand not the things that belong to their peace, do they still continue: And thus must they continue till the purpose of God is completed; till the measure of their punishment, like the measure of their iniquity, being full and running over, they shall comply with the overtures of divine mercy, and acknowledge for their God and Saviour the Lord and Giver of life, whom their fathers condemned, and delivered up to be slain. Having, as a standing miracle to the world, to prove the truth of God's threats, the justice of his judgments, the superintendency of his providence, fulfilled the time of their punishment, they shall become a miracle of divine grace, and, by their conversion, bring in the fulness of the Gentiles to the faith of Christ, and make, with them, one sheep-fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

If the true exposition of the expression, having eyes and not seeing, and ears and not hearing, hath been given, it will be no difficult matter to ascertain our Saviour's meaning when he saith to his disciples, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear." The conduct of his disciples was different from that of the bulk of their nation. In their notions of Messiah they were, it is true, mistaken. In common with their countrymen, they expected a temporal deliverer, who would lead them to victory and triumph. But they shewed not that obstinacy of temper which generally pervaded the Jewish na-. tion. They had no attachment to error and vice which hindered them from understanding the things of the kingdom of God. They gave up all they had in this world, and followed Christ, being determined to abide by him, and take their portion with him, whatever it might be. They were convinced by the miracles they saw, and the. doctrines they heard, that he was Messiah; and on all occasions showed a ready disposition to obey his will and conform to his instructions-"Thou art the Christ," said Peter to him on a particular occasion, "the Son of the living God." When some who had set out to follow him, N

VOL. II.