LECTURE CV.

LUKE XX. 9-18.

"Then began he to speak to the people this parable: A certain man planted a vineyard, and let it forth to husbandmen, and went into a far country for a long time. 10. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. 11. And again he sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. 12. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out. 13. Then said the lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: it may be they will reverence him when they see him. 14. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. 15. So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? 16. He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. 17. And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? 18. Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall it will grind him to powder."

WHEN men are sincere and ingenuous, they readily discern, acknowledge, and personally apply, the truth; but when they are prejudiced and set against conviction, they are very inaccessible to argument. Hence, one chief advantage of parables, which represent spiritual things, not only simply and intelligibly, but in a way calculated to avoid the exciting of suspicion, and thus to lead on untoward men to feel, and, perhaps, confess the truth of very important principles, before they are fully aware of their application to themselves. In the parable now read, our Lord, with holy dexterity, brings the obstinately unbelieving Jews to acknowledge that the most fearful misery must be expected to overtake all the enemies of God, and, by just inference, their own nation; and if we rightly follow out the scope of the parable, we shall also be convinced that certain destruction awaits every soul that rejects the gospel, and that to receive Jesus Christ, and improve our religious privileges, is the only way of safety.

This parable, the parable of the vineyard, is given in very nearly the same words, by Matthew and Mark.* After our Lord, as he was teaching in the temple, had silenced the chief priests, scribes, and elders, who had insolently demanded by what authority he acted, while they disregarded the miraculous evidence he had given of his divine mission, and the testimony of John the Baptist"Then began he to speak to the people this parable." He addressed himself to the whole multitude, including the above-mentioned rulers. "A certain man planted a vineyard." The" certain man," or "householder," that is, master of a family and estate, is evidently intended to represent God. The "vineyard" is intended to represent the visible Church, or the possession of the outward privileges of the true religion. Under the comparison of a vineyard Israel is represented, in various particulars, as havin been the object of much work and care. The Lord "planted" it as a vineyard is planted with vines, furnishing it with many advantages and helps for spiritual fruitfulness; he planted it a noble vine, wholly a right seed." And so it is, wherever the Church is in purity, and as God would have it. Every thing in the Church is, or, at least, should be, according to his appointment. "Every plant," saith our Lord, "which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." All that is good in the system, or in the ministers of the Church, is of divine origin. God appoints her statutes, and her faithful people are called "trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified."

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Some additional particulars of comparison are stated in the parable, as given by Matthew and Mark. Having planted this vineyard, the householder "hedged it round about," as is commonly done with vineyards and gardens, to mark them off, in a pleasing manner, from the surrounding land, which is waste, or cultivated with less care and expense; and to defend them against injurious incursions. So, where true religion is professed, the country is inclosed, as it were, from the regions of heathenism; and, in addition to this, the visible Church is cut off and separated from the world by special ordinances, which are at once ordinances of union and ordinances of distinction. The Church is also hedged round for security, being defended by the wise and powerful providence of God: "For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the * Matt. xxi. 33; Mark xii. 1. Matt. xxi. 33.

glory in the midst of her.' ."* It is added in Matthew, " And he digged a wine-press in it;" that is, he constructed a wine-press, and dug a cavity in the earth, to hold the vat for containing the expressed juice of the grapes. This may refer to the sacrifices, and other rites of the Jewish economy, and more generally to whatever is necessary for the Church, under any dispensation. "And he built a tower in it." It was usual to erect a small tower, from the top of which those who kept the vineyard could look round and superintend the whole, to which they could retire for shelter, and in which, when necessary, they could remain during the night, or at any time, to be ready to defend the vineyard against beasts and robbers. Such a tower, too, it may be supposed, would generally be very ornamental. The temple at Jerusalem was such a tower in the vineyard of Israel; and we have here another beautiful illustration of the goodness of God in adorning and protecting his Church," for upon all the glory shall be a defence."

There are two passages of Scripture which are peculiarly worthy of notice, as carrying out this simile of the vineyard fully, and in a variety of striking particulars. First, in the 80th Psalm: "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt; thou hast cast out the heathen and planted it. Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars." 66 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they who pass by the way do pluck her? The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts, and look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself." Secondly, in the 5th chapter of Isaiah: "Now will I sing to my well-beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a wine-press therein. And he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge,

* Zech. ii. 5; see also Isa. xxvii. 2.

In Matthew, the word is λnvos; in Mark, úæoanviov.

I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now, go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. And I will lay it waste; it shall not be pruned nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry."

rent.

This vineyard, its owner, according to the parable, "let out to husbandmen," or farmed out for a certain stipulated The husbandmen, more immediately intended, were the Jews; especially, their priests and rulers, who held all their advantages under the express condition of improving them for the glory of God. The same principle, however, applies to all who are possessed of similar privileges. The householder then "went into a far country for a long time." After the giving of the law, the Lord, comparatively speaking, withdrew from the Jews; and for a long time before the coming of Christ, he left them without a prophet, and without any miraculous manifestations of himself. And so, after introducing among a people, perhaps, by signal providential interferences, the light and ordinances of the gospel, God usually allows things to remain as they are, and, to speak after the manner of men, waits for years to see what is to be the result. This letting out of a vineyard for a rent is thus described in the following passage of the Song of Solomon:* "Solomon had a vineyard at Baal-hamon; he let out the vineyard unto keepers; every one for the fruit thereof was to bring a thousand pieces of silver. My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred."

"And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard." According to the law of Moses,† whatever fruit might be on any trees for the first three years after they were planted, was ceremonially unclean, and not to be used at all; the * Song of Sol. viii, 11. + Lev. xix. 23.

fruit of the fourth year was to be consecrated to the Lord; and the fruit of the fifth and subsequent years might be eaten in the common way. This may have been in opposition to some idolatrous customs; but it seems plainly to have been intended to teach that men should wait patiently for every desirable good, and honour the Lord with their substance, and with the first-fruits of all their increase; and also, that God graciously waits for their fruitfulness, and for the maturity of their graces. When the proper time was come, both as to the year, and the season of the year, the owner of the vineyard sent a servant for the rent, which, it is here supposed, was to have been paid in kind. "But," instead of receiving the servant with respect, and sending by him the payment they were due, "the husbandmen' most wickedly and selfishly "beat him" (the word signifies, scourged him very severely), "and sent him away empty."

When their landlord heard of their crime, instead of immediately proceeding against them with severity, as he might justly have done, "he again sent another servant: and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully, and sent him away empty. And again, he sent a third; and they wounded him also, and cast him out." According to Matthew, "they killed one, and stoned another:" and when the owner of the vineyard still " sent other servants more than the first," that is, more in point of number, and higher in point of office," they did unto them likewise."

The servants whom God sent to the Jews were his prophets, who came to call both the rulers and the people to account. Now, they were notorious for the ill treatment of these prophets, many instances of which are recorded. For example," Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord;" Micaiah was smitten on the cheek: Elijah was called by king Ahab, "He that troubleth Israel," and had to flee for his life: Isaiah had much contradiction to endure, and it is believed that he was sawn asunder: Jeremiah, during the greater part of his life, was much persecuted; Pashur, the chief governor of the house of the Lord, smote him, and put him into the stocks, all his familiars watched for his halting, and the men of his own town, Anathoth, sought his life. We have this general account of the conduct of the Jews before the captivity of Babylon: * "The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on

* 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15.