This crime, therefore, was confined solely and exclusively to those Pharisees, who attributed miracles wrought by the Spirit of God to the agency of evil spirits. Since, therefore, miracles have ceased, no one, in later times, can be literally guilty of this unpardonable blasphemy'. Still there are some sins of a like nature which may be committed by us, and which, being committed, may prove no less dangerous to those who are guilty of them, than that sin proved to the Pharisees heretofore. Of this nature must especially be reckoned apostasy from the Christian religion, after having been convinced of its truth, and made partakers of its promises; and apostasy from the truth and purity of the Gospel, for the sake of some worldly fears, or of some present hopes and advantages; profane scoffing at religion, and the Holy Spirit of God, which dwells in good men; perverse infidelity, notwithstanding all reasonable evidence; obstinacy in any sinful or vicious course; sinning against the clear conviction of conscience;-these are all offences of a flagrant character, and of great provocation in the sight of God; and if the sin against the Holy Ghost be so unpardonable, then must these sins, which are all approaches to it, be very dreadful'.

193

SECT. XLV.-Christ restrained by His Mother and Brethren. -Matt. xii. 22-37; Mark iii. 31-35; Luke viii. 19-21.

JESUS continued to preach the word with unshaken fortitude and unwearied patience, exposing Himself to the malevolence of His enemies, by His pointed reproofs, and exhausting His bodily strength by incessant labours. His mother and His brethren, probably apprehensive of danger to Him, both from His words and His health, and to restrain Him from such a laborious discharge of His ministry, desired to use their persuasion that He should take proper repose and refreshment'. They thought His zeal was carrying Him too far, so as to make Him neglect even the necessary recreations of nature'; with which intention they follow Him from place to place, but "could not come at Him for the press." As it was a sin to stop Christ's ministry, however well intentioned, so this may be taken as an evidence of the Virgin mother's sinfulness. He knew this well enough, and therefore gives her a somewhat severe answer. It was, no doubt, a distinguished favour to be the mother and kinsmen of our Lord; but though this could be the lot of few, yet He declares there is a far superior happiness,even that of heaven,-open to every one who will attend to obey the will of God. Who are

'Dr. Lightfoot and Abp. Newcome.

2 Dr. S. Clarke.

3

' Dr. Lightfoot.

4

Bishop Mann.

they whom ye call My mother, and My brethren? Do ye think that I esteem persons for any earthly relation or affections? Then, pointing to His disciples, He added, No; rather these are they whom ye ought more properly to regard as My relations'.

SECT. XLVI.—Christ teacheth by Parables.-Matt. xiii. 34, 35; Mark iv. 33, 34; Luke viii. 4.

It is possible, nevertheless, that He may have yielded to their kind importunities, and retired for a season; but "the same day" He appeared again in public; and, no sooner did He quit the house, to which He probably had withdrawn at their solicitation, than immense multitudes surrounded Him, as before. Being now on the sea-shore, for the better convenience of delivering His instructions, He entered into a ship: "So that He sat, and the whole multitude stood." This was the Jewish custom in their schools and synagogues, that the masters when teaching sat, and the scholars or audience stood. It was according to the style and manner of the nation to speak in parables; and they were exceedingly accustomed to this style of rhetoric. The Talmuds are full of this kind of oratory; and they commonly enter upon their parables with the preface, "To what is the thing like ?"-exactly as is the style so often employed by the Christ'. The word, as

Dr. S. Clarke.

6

Dr. Robinson.

Dr. Lightfoot.

applied to our Saviour's parables, signifies a short narrative of some event or fact, real or fictitious, in which a continued comparison is carried on, frequently between sensible and spiritual objects; and under this similitude some important doctrine, moral or religious, is conveyed. This mode of instruction has many advantages, more particularly in recommending virtue, and reproving vice. It is certain, that the Wise Men of the East, as well as the Jewish Doctors, taught by parables; but, although our Lord followed the example of other Eastern teachers in the use of this mode of instruction, He did it with a moderation and dignity becoming His exalted character. He never introduces beasts of the field, or trees of the forest, debating and conversing together with the reason and faculties of man; nor does He bring forward emblematical persons as influencing the counsels and actions of men; and only once, in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, is the scene of a parable laid beyond the visible world'. The parables of the New Testament excel, many of them, every thing of the kind that ever was written; not particularly in style and diction, but in the choice of the subject, in the structure of the narratives, in the aptness, propriety, and force of the circumstances woven into them; and Bishop Porteus.

8

9 Dr. Townson.

in some there is an union of pathos and simplicity, which, in the best productions of human genius, is the fruit only of a much exercised and well-cultivated judgment '.

SECT. XLVII.-The Parable of the Sower and the Seed.Matt. xiii. 1-23; Mark iv. 1-20; Luke viii. 5-15.

THE first of the parables of our Lord in point of time is that of the sower. He would teach that, as with earth there is great diversity of soils, some bad and some good, in different degrees and shades; so, in mankind, there is an equal diversity of hearts and dispositions, some bad, more or less, some comparatively good. But as the earth cannot produce any thing of itself without culture, except briars, thorns, and weeds, even where the soil is best; so neither can mankind, merely by themselves, and without Divine cultivation, produce any spiritual fruit acceptable to God. All, in the state of nature, are, alike, barren and unprofitable, until the good seed is sown in the former by the careful husbandman: and the Word of God in the latter by Christ, His Apostles, and His ministers2.

SECT. XLVIII.-The Parable of the Tares.

Matt. xiii. 24-30.

ON the same occasion, it should seem, our Lord delivered the parable of the tares. The Greek word so translated does not occur elsewhere in 2 Dr. Hales.

1 Archdeacon Paley.