that of Nathan; that of the woman of Tekoahf, in the reign of David; and that of the thistle and the cedar of Lebanont, by Jehoafh, king of Ifrael. From the eaft this fpecies of compofition paffed into Greece and Italy, and thence into the rest of Europe; and there are two celebrated writers, one in the Greek, the other in the Roman tongue, whofe fables every one is acquainted with from their earliest years. Thefe, it must be owned, are elegant, amufing, and, in a certain degree, moral and inftructive. But they are not in any degree to be compared with the parables of our bleffed Lord, which infinitely excel them, and every other compofition of that fpecies, in many effential points.

1. In the first place, the fables of the ancients are many of them of a very trivial nature, or at the best contain nothing more than maxims of mere worldly wisdom and common prudence, and fometimes perhaps a little moral instruction.

But the parables of our bleffed Lord relate to fubjects of the very higheft importance; to the great leading principles of human conduct, to the effential duties of man, to the nature and progrefs of the Chriftian religion, to the moral government of the world, to the great diftinctions between vice and virtue, to the awful fcenes of eternity, to the divine influences of the Holy Spirit, to the great work of our redemption, to a refurrection and a future judgment, and the diftribution of rewards and punifhments in a future ftate; and all this expreffed with a dignity of fentiment, and a fimplicity of language, per fectly well fuited to the grandeur of the fubject.

2. In the next place, the fables of the learned heathens, though entertaining and well compofed, are in general cold and dry, and calculated more to please the understanding than to touch the heart. Whereas thofe of our bleffed Lord are most of them in the highest degree affecting and interelling. Such for inftance are the parable of the loft fleep, of the prodigal fon, of the rich man and

2 Sam. xii. 1. † 2 Sam. xiv. 2 Kings xiv. 9.

Lazarus, of the Pharisee and Publican, of the unforgiv ing fervant, of the good Samaritan. There is nothing in all heathen antiquity to be compared to thefe ; nothing that speaks fo forcibly to our tendereft feelings and affections, and leaves fuch deep and lafting impreffions upon the foul.

3dly. The Greek and Roman fables are most of them founded on improbable or impoffible circumstances, and are fuppofed converfations between animate or inanimate beings, not endowed with the power of speech; between birds, beafts, reptiles, and trees; a circumftance which fhocks the imagination, and of course weakens the forceof the inftruction

Our Saviour's parables on the contrary are all of them images and allufions taken from nature, and from occurrences which are most familiar to our obfervation and experience in common life; and the events related are not only fuch as might very probably happen, but several of them are fuppofed to be fuch as actually did; and this would have the effect of a true historical narrative, which we all know to carry much greater weight and authority with it than the most ingenious fiction. Of the former fort are the rich man and Lazarus, of the good Samaritan, and of the prodigal fon. There are others in which our Saviour feems to allude to fome historical facts which happened in thofe times; as that wherein it is faid, that a king went into a far country, there to receive a kingdom.

This probably refers to the hiftory of Archelaus, who, after the death of his father, Herod the Great, went to Rome to receive from Auguftus the confirmation of his father's will, by which he had the kingdom of Judea left

to him.

Thefe circumftances give a decided fuperiority to our Lord's parables over the fables of the ancients; and if we compare them with those of the Koran, the difference is ftill greater. The parables of Mahomet are trifling; uninterefting, tedious, and dull. Among other things which he has borrowed from Scripture, one is the para

ble of Nathan, in which he has moft ingenuously contriv ed to destroy all its fpirit, force, and beauty; and has fo completely distorted and deformed its whole texture and compofition, that if the commentator had not informed you, in very gentle, terms, that it is the parable of Nathan a little difguifed, you would fearge have known it to be the fame. Such is the difference between a prophet who is really infpired, and an impoftor who pretends to be fo.

Nor is it only in his parables, but in his other difcourfes to the people, that Jefus draws his doctrines and instructions from the scenes of nature, from the objects that furrounded him, from the most common occurrences of life, from the feafons of the year, from fome extraordinary incidents or remarkable tranfactions. "Thus," as a learned and ingenious writer has obferved, upon curing a blind man,

he ftyles himself the light of the world, and reproves the Pharifees for their fpiritual blindness and inexcufable obftinacy in refufing to be cured and enlightened by him. On little children being brought to him, he recommends the innocence, the fimplicity, the meeknefs, the humility, the docility, of that lovely age, as indifpenfable qualifitions for those that would enter into the kingdom of heaven. Beholding the flowers of the field, and the fowls of the air, he teaches his difciples to frame right and worthy notions of that Providence which fupports and adorns them, and will therefore affuredly not neglect the fuperior order of rational beings. Obferving the fruits of the earth, he inftructs them to judge of men by their fruitfulness under all the means of grace. From the mention of meat and drink, he leads them to the facred rite of eating his body and drinking his blood in a spiritual sense. From external ablutions, he deduces the neceflity of purifying the heart, and cleanfing the affections. Those that were fishers, he teaches to be fishers of men; to draw them by the force of argument and perfuafion, aided by the influence of divine grace, to the belief and practice of true religion. Seeing the money-changers, he exhorts his difciples to lay out their several talents to the best advantage. Being among the fheep-folds, he proves himself

See Bishop Law's Confiderations on the Theory of Religion,

the true fhepherd of Souls. Among vines he difcourfes of the fpiritual husbandman and vine-dreffer, and draws a parallel between his vineyard and the natural one. Upon the appearance of fummer in the trees before him, he points out evident figns of his approaching kingdom.When the harvest comes on, he reminds his difciples of the fpiritual harveft, the harvest of true believers; and exhorts them to labor diligently in that work, and add their prayers to Heaven for its fuccefs. From fervants being made free in the fabbatical year, he takes occasion to proclaim a nobler emancipation and more important re demption from the flavery of fin, and the bondage of corruption, by the death of Chrift. From the eminence of a city standing on a hill, he turns his discourse to the confpicucus fituation of his own difciples. From the temple before him, he points to that of his own body; and from Herod's unadvisedly leading out his army to meet the king of Arabia, who came againft him with a fuperior force, and defeated him, a lesson is held out to all who entered on the Chriftian warfare, that they fhould firft well weigh and carefully compute the difficulties attending it, and by the grace of God refolve to furmount them."

In the fame manner, when he delivered the parable of the fower, which we find in this chapter, and which will be the next fubject of our confideration, it was probably feed-time, and from the ship in which he taught he might obferve the hufbandmen fcattering their feed upon the earth. From thence he took occafion to illuftrate, by that rural and familiar image, the different effects which the doctrines of Chriftianity had on different men, according to the different tempers and difpofitions that they happened to meet with.

"Behold," fays he, "a fower went forth to fow. And when he fowed, fome fell by the way-fide, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon ftony places, where they had not much earth, and fortwith they fprung up, because they had no deepnefs of earth; and when the fun was up they were fcorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And fome fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But other

fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, fome a hundred fold, fome fixty fold, fome thirty fold." As our bleffed Lord, foon after he had uttered this parable, explained it to his difciples, it is highly proper that you fhould have this explanation in his own words. "Hear ye, therefore," fays he, "the parable of the fower.When any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was fown in his heart. This is he which received feed by the way-fide. But he that received the feed into ftony places, the fame is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while; for when tribulation or perfecution arifeth because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received feed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received feed into the good ground, is he that heareth the word and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth fome a hundred fold, fome fixty, fome thirty."

Such is the parable of the fower, and the explanation of it by our Saviour, which will furnish us with abundant matter for a great variety of very important reflections. But as these cannot be diftinctly stated and fufficiently enlarged upon at prefent, without going to a confiderable, length of time, and trefpaffing too far on that patience and indulgence which I have already but too often put to the test, I must referve for my next Lecture the obfervations I have to offer on this very interesting and inftructive parable.