when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

How many never pray! How many pray without asking! that is, they scarcely know what they want, nor do they earnestly desire to receive. Prayer is, however, the proper work of a Christian; let us do that in faith, and certainly God will do his part, in answering our requests. You may rest assured that he will give such an answer to your prayers as he knows to be best. Leave that to him, or else there is no faith, no prayer.

25. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

26. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is n heaven forgive your trespasses.

The flesh complains that to forgive is hard; but God can work us to it; and if we are not thus disposed, we have read our doom. O how little have we to forgive, and how much to be forgiven!

27. And they come again to Jerusalem: and as he was walking in the temple, there came to him the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders,

28. And said unto him, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority to do these things?

29. And Jesus answered and said unto them, I will also ask of you one question, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things.

30. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? an

swer me.

say

31. And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall From heaven; he will say, Why then did ye not believe him? 32. But if we shall say, Of men they feared the people: for

all men counted John, that he was a prophet indeed.

33. And they answered and said unto Jesus, We cannot tell. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Christ's design in this passage was to convince his adver

saries, that he might, with as much probability, have his authority from heaven, as John the Baptist, which they could not, or durst not deny, and that they might see the finger of God in what both did. And farther, we may observe, he would not give a direct answer to their question, because he knew they were unworthy, and would make an ill use of it. No one can learn of him, but he who is possessed of humility, and a sincere desire to profit by Jesus Christ.

SECTION XXXVIII.

Chap. xii. ver. 1–9.

PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD.

1. And he began to speak unto them by parables. A certain man planted a vineyard,

This vineyard served to point out the Jewish church then; and it serves to point out the Christian church now. We must chiefly keep our thoughts to the latter.

1. And set a hedge about it, and digged a place for the winefat, and built a tower,

He did all that was necessary on his part. And has he not done so by us? Has he not planted the gospel among us, prepared everything to our hands, and put us into a condition to render him the fruits of it in due season.

1. And let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country.

We may possibly think that he is at a distance from us, and on this account neglect our charge; but we may rest assured that he has his eye always upon us, and upon his own time of reckoning with us.

2. And at the season he sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard.

Christ sends his ministers, year by year; he sends to us now, even at this season. If he was here present to require our fruit, what should we say to him? Where is it?

3. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty.

It is trouble enough to the true servants of God to be sent away empty; they need not be beaten also. And yet this is generally their lot; ill usage of some kind or other they must look for. Such is the nature of men, that all who are not wrought upon, and converted by them, will hate them. Think how dreadful your case will be, if you do no more than send your minister empty away.

4. And again he sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled.

5. And again he sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some and killing some.

Behold here God's patience with men, notwithstanding their great provocations; and let it lead you to serious considerations of your state. For he must have some fruit from us sooner or later. He will indeed wait long for it ; but woe be to us, if he find us empty at last.

6. Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son.

O what goodness! What love was here! How dear are the souls of men to God! This Son, you know, Jesus Christ, has been sent, and is continually preached to us. And if we do not reverence him, receive him gladly into our hearts, and bring forth fruit under him, mercy is at an end with us for ever. God can do no more for us.

7. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be our's.

The Jews said, and did this, indeed; we do it in effect, when we reject Christ and his salvation: and all such persons, if they had been alive then, would have joined with them in what they did. If Christ is not precious to us, if he does not teach us to crucify our sins, the scripture itself informs us, that we are of that number, of whom St. Paul writes, Heb. vi. 6, "Who crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame." We may talk of our good hearts, and good meanings: but we do not rightly consider what guilt he has to lay to our charge, if we will not suffer him to bring us to God.

Do not some say in their hearts, let us rid ourselves of Christ, and of his doctrine, and then we may do as we list. Does not this thought lie lurking at the heart of every one of us, so long as we stand off from Christ, and his salvation, through our unbelief?

8. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard.

As we do when we cast him from our hearts.

9. What shall therefore the lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others.

God miserably destroyed the Jews, and gave their vineyard to the rest of the world. But is God the same now as he was then, or not? As surely as he destroyed the Jews, so surely shall we perish, if we neglect the vineyard, and do not live worthily of the gospel. He has granted us repentance unto life, and given us a Saviour; but if we do not bring forth fruits meet for repentance, and honour the Saviour in our conversion, we here read our doom. We know not how soon this nation may be ruined on account of sin; but whether it is or not, every sinner will perish eternally on account of his own transgression.

This parable, though it immediately concerned the Jews, is applicable to men at all times; and we may see in this glass, how God deals with us for our unfruitfulness, under

the means of reformation, and for our contempt and rejection of Christ. May God give us grace to search our hearts by it, and enable us to take what is here said to ourselves.

SECTION XXXIX.

Chap. xii. ver. 10—17.

CHRIST ANSWERS THE PHARISEES, AND THE HERODIANS.

10. And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner :

Here learn, that we may read the scripture and yet not understand it. The understanding the scripture comes to us by a spiritual gift, and is imparted to every honest and good heart, which desires to profit by what it reads and hears. If you would understand the scripture, let it not be a dead letter to you; it will be your own fault if it is. Pray over it, that God would help you so to profit by the Bible.

Learn, again, that, just as a builder throws aside a stone which he judges to be unfit for use, so we throw aside Christ, till a sense of sin makes us feel a want of him. It will, however, be a happy effect of our reading, if Christ is made a chief corner-stone to us, elect, precious to us, 1 Peter ii. 6, that we may say from our own conversion by him,

11. This was the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

12. And they sought to lay hold on him, but feared the people: for they knew that he had spoken the parable against them:

Behold, here, the root of men's aversion to Christ, con