plying the fullest proof of his own omniscience, but so communicating them as not to be understood at the time, our Saviour adopted the only expedient which seems to have been left, between vouchsafing the prediction of things very necessary to be foretold by himself, and yet denying the perception of his prophecies to those, who were neither entitled to expect them, nor qualified to receive them from him.

The success of his ministry, up to its middle point, was an experimental proof, how little the people at large were disposed as yet, and how little likely they were, in any length of time, to become disposed at last, to bear such disclosures openly: and even the faith and simplicity of his own disciples, in common with the rest of their age and nation, were still mixed up with so much of ignorance and prejudice, that the partial concealment of many things from them was as much an act of kindness, in condescension to their infirmity, as their total obscuration from scribes and Pharisees, or the common people in general, was an act of just retribution, upon their blindness and infatuation.

Meanwhile, the Christian world began to be provided beforehand, in these allegorical disclosures of the future, with a body of evidence that should bear a luminous testimony to the divine wisdom and foreknowledge of its Author; shining with undiminished lustre, as long as the religion should last, and sensibly perceptible wherever the religion itself has a being. They are all prophecies of the most illustrious kind, tried by any criterion, the strictest and most rigorous we can devise, for sifting and ascertaining the value of prophecy in

general. There is none of them which did not speedily begin to be verified; and there is scarcely one which has ceased to be verified, or whose fulfilment is not still going on. The greater number began to have an actual being with the beginning of the Christian dispensation; were enlarged and expanded with the growth and expansion of the Gospel scheme; and will attain to the maturity of their accomplishment, and to the utmost significancy of their meaning, only when Christianity shall have produced its entire effect, and the Gospel scheme have fulfilled its appointed part in this world. And some there are which, in the scope of their extent, pass beyond the bounds of time and sense; and though they began to be realized in the present state of being, may continue to be verified and accomplished, coeternally with eternity itself.

CHAPTER V.

Why the use of Parables is peculiar to the Gospels?

As it was evidently possible for the apostles to have used parables, as well as our Saviour; as there could apparently be no impropriety in doing what he had done before them; and as for the purpose of general instruction, so far as such an end was likely to be promoted by the use of parables, there would seem to be an equal reasonableness in their being used by both; perhaps it may often have occurred to a reader of the New Testament, to ask why so many parables are to be met with in the Gospels, and none in the rest of the Christian scriptures? The answer to this question is not necessarily connected with the business of explaining the parables actually on record: but as it is a natural inquiry, and the solution of it will contribute to reflect further light on the true character and constitution, and the proper use and design of the parables themselves, I may be permitted perhaps, to bestow a few words upon it.

The Holy Spirit of truth and wisdom, under whose direction the apostles both spoke and wrote, no doubt, did not think fit that they should employ the medium of parable as a regular instrument of their preaching; and no doubt, had sufficient reasons for not thinking fit that they should. Perhaps it was necessary that, as in other respects, so also in this, of the mode or vehicle of their instructions, some broad line of distinction should be drawn be

tween the teaching of the Master, and that of the disciples. Perhaps too, the subserviency of parables was most fitly to be restricted to oral and extemporaneous teaching, like all our Saviour's sermons and discourses; and was not so proper for written, premeditated compositions, such as the Epistles of the apostles. The Gospel parables, however, are twofold; and if there were general reasons why the apostles should not employ such a mode of teaching, there would probably be special reasons why they should not have recourse to this, or that kind of it.

As far then as concerns the use of allegorical parables, (the number and frequency of which properly constitute the peculiarity of the parabolic mode of teaching to the Gospels,) it is evident from what has been said about them, that the end to which such parables were subservient, was temporary; and their proper purpose being accomplished, the necessity of such means, at least for such an effect, we may presume would naturally cease.

We may easily perceive that it would not have been suitable to the office and ministry of a mere herald of the kingdom, like our Saviour, to have made known and professed, in their natural clearness, simplicity, and circumstantiality, a variety of future facts or truths; more especially in relation to himself. If these, therefore, were to be touched upon, or made known by him, it must still be darkly and metaphorically. The times themselves, and the state of the popular mind, would not have tolerated certain disclosures; which nevertheless, it might be very proper he himself should make beforehand. The only natural means, then, of making them known, or placing them on record, without

incurring the risk of too naked and incautious an exposure of their real character, was to shroud them in the disguise of allegory.

The same facts and truths, however, which, as concerning the person, the relations, the functions and offices of the Messiah, in his character of the Saviour of his people, the Shepherd of his flock, and the Head of the whole body of the faithful, our Lord himself had only half revealed in his discourses—had only darkly and figuratively attested in his own behalf; it became the apostles, when they entered upon their office, to proclaim publicly, openly, intelligibly every where, and to all men, as the great objects of Christian faith and trust. There could be no concealment of the character and attributes of the Messiah, after he had begun to be preached as the Author of salvation, to all mankind. The season of mystery and disguise with respect to such things was past; and would have been, if continued, not only preposterous, but fatal. If men were to be saved by faith in Christ, and by receiving and believing in him implicitly, as what he isplainness and clearness were just as much to be studied at last, in revealing the true nature of the scriptural Messiah, as obscurity and indistinctness had been before.

In like manner, the various predictions concerning the future fortunes and treatment of the Jewish church or people; the gradual developement of the successive steps in the economy of divine grace, affecting either the Jew or the Gentile; the beginning, continuance, and final design and effect of one and the same Gospel scheme; which were almost exclusively the subjects of our Lord's teaching