containing such prophecies, he goes on, "I despair not to see unheeded prophecies disclosed in others of them."* Vitringa's Elucidation of the Parablest is a practical application of this scheme of interpretation, and one which certainly is not calculated to give one a very favorable opinion of it. As a specimen, the servant owing the ten thousand talents (Matt. xviii. 23), is the Pope, or line of Popes, placed in highest trust in the Church, but who, misusing the powers committed to them, were warned by the invasion of Goths, Lombards, and other barbarians, of judgment at the door, and indeed seemed given into their hands for 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, now more than ever oppressed and maltreated the true servants of God, and who therefore should be delivered over to an irreversible doom. He gives a yet more marvellous explanation of the Merchant seeking goodly pearls, this pearl of price being the church of Geneva and the doctrine of Calvin opposed to all the abortive pearls, that is, to all the other reformed Churches. Other examples may be found in Cocceius-an interpretation, for instance, of the Ten Virgins, after this same fashion. Deyling has an interesting essay on this school of interpreters, and passes a severe, though certainly not undeserved, condemnation on them. Prophetical, no doubt, many of the parables are, for they declare how the new element of life, which the Lord was bringing into men's hearts and into the world, would work-the future

*On the Style of the Holy Scriptures: Fifth Objection. There is nothing new however in this scheme, for it is evident from many passages, that Origen had very much the same belief. I would refer particularly to what he says on the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Comm. in Matth. xx.), where he seems to labor under the sense of some great undisclosed mystery concerning the future destinies of the kingdom of God, lying hidden in that parable. St. Ambrose (Apolog. Alt. David, c. 57) gives a strange historico-prophetical interpretation of Nathan's parable of the Ewe Lamb: and Hippolytus (De Antichristo, c. 57), of the Unjust Judge.

Erklärung der Parabolen.-Being published, not like most of his other works in Latin, but originally in Dutch, it is far less known, as indeed it deserves to be, than his other oftentimes very valuable works. I have made use of a German translation, Frankfort, 1717. The volume consists of more than a thousand rather closelyprinted pages, and has wonderfully little grain to be winnowed out from a most unreasonable proportion of chaff.

Schol. in Matth. xxv. More are to be found in GURTLER'S Syst. Theol. Proph.; as at pp. 542, 676. Deusingius, Teelman, D'Outrein, Solomon Van Till, may be named among the other chief writers of this school.

◊ Obss. Sac., v. 5, p. 331, seq. He notes how the same scheme of interpretation has been applied by the same school of interpreters to the miracles. Of this, various examples may be found in LAMPE's Commentary on St. John,—see, for instance, on the feeding of the five thousand (John vi.). They form the weakest part of a book which contains in other respects much that is admirable.

influences and results of his doctrine-that the little mustard-seed would grow to a great tree-that the leaven would continue working till it had leavened the whole lump. But they declare not so much the facts as the laws of the kingdom, or the facts only so far as by giving insight into the laws, they impart a knowledge of the facts. Historico-prophetical are only a few; as for instance, that of the Wicked Husbandmen which Boyle adduced, in which there is a clear prophecy of the death of Christ; as that again of the Marriage of the King's Son, in which there is 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 the most perfect specimens of this form of composition, those by which the comparative value of all other in the like kind are to be measured, are to be found in that Book which is the most perfect of all books, yet they do not belong exclusively to it. The parable, as Jerome has noted, is among the favorite vehicles for conveying moral truth in all the East. Our Lord took possession of it, honored it by making it his own, by using it as the vehicle for the very highest truth of all. But there were parables before the parables which issued from his lips. It seems to belong to our subject to say a little concerning those, which, though they did not give the pattern to, yet preceded his, concerning those also which were formed more or less immediately on the suggestion and in the imitation of his, on the Jewish, that is, and the Christian. And first upon the Jewish parables.

Some indeed have denied, but against all testimony, that this method of teaching by parables was current among the Jews before our Saviour's time. To this they had been mainly led by the fear lest it should detract from his glory, to suppose that he had availed himself of a manner of teaching already in use. Yet surely the anxiety which has been often shown, and of which this is a specimen, to cut off the Lord's teaching from all living connection with his age and country is very idle, and the suspicion with which parallels from the uninspired Jewish writings have been regarded, altogether misplaced. It is 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 no object whatever in attempting. For if Christianity be indeed the world-religion, it must gather into one all dispersed rays

*The attempt fails even when made by so able and learned a man as Witsius. It is not from grounds such as he occupies in his Ægyptiaca, that books like SPENCER'S De Legibus Hebræorum can be answered.

of light it must appropriate to itself all elements of truth which are any where scattered abroad, not thus adopting what is alien, but rather claiming what is its own. There cannot be a doubt that our blessed Lord so spake, as that his doctrine, according to its outward form, should commend itself to his countrymen. There were inner obstacles enough

to their receiving of it; need was it therefore that outwardly it should be attractive. Thus he appealed to proverbs in common use among them. He quoted the traditionary speeches of their elder Rabbis, to refute, to enlarge, or to correct them. When he found the theological terms of their schools capable of bearing the burden of the new truth which he laid upon them, he willingly used them;† and in using, did not deny their old meaning, yet at the same time glorified and transformed it into something far higher. He used them, but all his words. being creative, and he making all things new, he breathed into them also a new spirit of life. The prayer, "Thy kingdom come," formed already a part of the Jewish liturgy, yet not the less was it a new prayer on the lips of all who had realized in any measure the idea of the kingdom, and what was signified by the coming of that kingdom, as he first had enabled them to realize it. So, "Peace be unto you!" was no doubt an ordinary salutation among the Jews long before, yet having how much deeper a significance, and one how altogether new upon his lips who was our Peace, and who, first causing us to enter ourselves into the peace of God, enabled us truly to wish peace, and to speak peace, to our brethren. In like manner also it 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 these terms used, as far as we can see, to express a change only in his outward relations-that his kinsmen were his kinsmen no more; it remained for Christ and his apostles to appropriate them to the higher mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. Nor less is it certain that the illustrating of doctrines by the help of parables, or briefer comparisons, was eminently in use among the Jewish teachers, so that it might also

แ

In the words of CLEMENT (Strom., 1. 1, c. 13): Auvath ý àλýdela ovvayάyei tà οἰκεία σπέρματα, κἂν εἰς τὴν ἀλλοδαπὴν ἐκπέσῃ γῆν.

† There is an interesting Essay in this point of view by Schoettgen (Hor. Heb., v. 2, p. 883,) with the title Christus Rabbinorum summus. In the same way the whole coloring of Ezekiel's visions, and the symbols which he uses, are Persian and Babylonian throughout, they belong, that is, to the world in which he lived and moved; yet the distinction remains as wide as ever between a Magian or Chaldæan soothsayer and a prophet of the living God.

SCHOETTGEN's Hor. Heb., v. 1, pp. 328, 704.

VITRINGA, De Synagogâ, p. 678, seq. Hillel and Schammai were the most illustrious teachers by parables before the time of our Saviour; R. Meir immediately after. With this last, as the tradition goes, the power of inventing para

be said of them as of him, that without a parable they taught nothing. The very formulas with which their parables were introduced were the same as those we find in the Gospels; for instance, the question "Whereunto shall I liken it?" is of continual recurrence. But what then? it was not in the newness of the forms, but in the newness of the spirit, that the glory and superior excellency of Christ's doctrine consisted.

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

bles notably declined. This is not hard to understand. The fig-tree of the Jewish people was withered, and could put forth no fruit any more. (Matt. xxi. 19.) * SCHOETTGEN's Hor. Heb., v. 1,

p. 682.

† SCHOETTGEN's Hor. Heb., v. 1, p. 1129. How different is this view of the Law