sa vildi G.d created to this time, neither shall

The best Castrada of these words is to be found in the paralue of the vineyard and husbandmen, and in the words of the Apostle Fail to the Thessalonians :-"A certain man planted a vineyard, and set an hedge about it, and Egged a place for the wired, and built a tower, and let it car to husbandmen, and went into a far country. And at the season be sent to the husbandmen a servant, that he might receive from the husbandmen of the fruit of the vineyard. And they caught him, and beat him, and sent him away empty. And again be sent unto them another servant; and at him they cast stones, and wounded him in the head, and sent him away shamefully handled. And again be sent another; and him they killed, and many others; beating some, and killing some. Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he sent him also last unto them, saying, They will reverence my son. But those husbandmen said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours. And they took him, and killed him, and cast him out of the vineyard. What shall therefore the Lord of the vineyard do? he will come and destroy the husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others." The Jews "both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."

Our Lord brings still another charge against the pharisaic Scribes :-"Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." He charges

4

Mark xiii. 19.

31 Thess. ii. 15, 16.

2 Mark xii. 1-9.

Luke xi. 52.

them with taking away "the key of knowledge "—that is, knowledge, which is the key. "The key" here is the key of the kingdom; this is plain from the parallel passage in the gospel by Matthew, where they are said to "shut up the kingdom of God against men," and from what is said to follow from their taking away the key. They locked the gates of the kingdom, so that there was no entrance. The key of the kingdom is knowledge-knowledge of the truth in reference to the design of the Messiah's advent, and the nature of his kingdom. That knowledge was to be got in the Old Testament Scriptures. But the pharisaic Scribes misinterpreted these Scriptures, and taught their countrymen to expect in the Messiah a temporal prince, and worldly honour, power, and pleasure, as the blessings of his reign. By their false views, they excluded themselves from the blessings of the new and better economy; and, so far as these views prevailed, they prevented others from participating in these blessings. They thus became the authors of destruction, both to themselves and to others.

These faithful statements, instead of reclaiming, irritated our Lord's opponents :-" They began to urge him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things; laying wait for him, and seeking to catch something out of his mouth, that they might accuse him." But their insidious arts were in vain. He opened his mouth in wisdom; and, while he fearlessly spoke the most unpalatable truth, he carefully avoided everything which might give them an advantage over him, by affording them the means either of exciting the multitude to destroy him by violence, or of drawing down on him the vengeance of the Roman government, as a seditious disturber of the public peace.

3

I conclude, in the words of a respected elder brother:" "Let us not turn away from this benevolent severity un

1 Matth. xxiii. 13.

2 Luke xi. 53, 54.

3 Dr Bennet, the friend and biographer of the venerable Bogue.

joined Le te sam the pristie religie, which was, and the off the Jews. Les view the law of God as the me for the bevel air the life; and as i kas irat mi ann mi getalle justification or Heir er ingerien debar is as learn by it to flee 1. Cong, vix the off the law for righteousness to every one that believeth" A: Christ's billing, let us bewere of Litty pretenders to sunity, who arrogantly assume authority over the souls of men. Meekness, modesty, men, and active beertiene are the characteristics of germine religion, in every age, and under every dispensation. Let us counteract the cruelty of those who would shut the kingdom of God against such as are desirous of entering; promote the free circulation and use of the holy Scriptures; and unfold the grace of the Gospel, in opposition to the insufferable law of works; and having well improved the key of knowledge for ourselves, let us act in the spirit of the purest and loftiest zeal for the universal diffusion of the word of God." 1

NOTE A, p. 426.

The remarks of ALEXANDER KNOX on the subject, appear to me singularly just. Speaking of a Christian of a higher order of spiritual attainment he says, "The man I speak of has separated himself from the pollutions of the world, without withdrawing from its common intercourse. This, however, requires much discriminative wisdom, and unremitting watchfulness, as well as tenderness of conscience: but when the habit is gained it is invaluable. He will not go into worldly company for pleasure, because his taste is of another kind; but he will not

Lectures on Christ's Preaching, p. 231.

shrink from calls of duty or propriety, because he scarcely fears the world more than he loves it. He fears it enough to make him ever watchful against its seductions, and ever solicitous to take to himself the whole armour of God.' But with this safeguard, he has no dread of any of its scenes; except when he should be, in any respect, a partaker in the unfruitful works of darkness.' When, therefore, such a person does mingle with the people of the world, he knows why he does so. It is no stealthy advance beyond the limit of his conscience, no widening of the circle which he once prescribed to himself. It is, as concurring circumstances have fully shown him, an actual part of his duty. 'In the calling,' merely, wherein he was called, therein he abides with God.' Acting in this simplicity, he finds frequent opportunities for useful conversation, of which he avails himself with the wisest management he can use. Being accustomed to view religion itself as in the most harmonious agreement with nature, providence, and all the higher tastes of man, he can graft wise and pious observations on subjects that would leave no opening whatever to the theological dogmatist; and, not having caught religion by the means of any party, he speaks of it solely in the language of plain sense, without danger of exciting either risibility or disgust, by any uncouthness of phraseology. But if he should find it expedient even to be wholly silent on religious subjects (in which case he will make his stay as short as decorum or duty will allow), he will still have comfort in reflecting that he has shown by his behaviour, that what the world deems over-strictness, does not necessarily contract the brow, or damp the spirits, or cramp the intellect, or blunt the mental taste, or make a man less capable of holding his place among mankind (as far as he himself judges it proper), with ease, with respectability, with courtesy, and yet with an independence of mind which no mere man of the world, ever did or could exemplify."-Remains, Vol. I., pp. 152, 153.

EXPOSITION VI.

FIGURATIVE VIEWS OF THE PURPOSE OF OUR LORD'S MISSION; OF THE MEANS OF GAINING IT; AND OF HIS FEELINGS IN REFERENCE TO BOTH.

Luxs xii. 49, 50—* I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I if it be already kinded? But I have a baptism to be baptised with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!"

A CAREFUL reader of the New Testament cannot fail to observe that many of our Lord's statements respecting future events, especially in reference to the design of his mission, and the means by which that design was to be accomplished, could, at the time they were made, from the figurative, and often enigmatical, language adopted by him, be but very imperfectly, if at all, understood, by those to whom they were addressed; while, at the same time, this very figurative and enigmatic style which occasioned the obscurity, was fitted to excite attention and secure recollection, so that, when the events predicted actually occurred, not only was the meaning of the predictions clearly unfolded, but the supernatural knowledge and the divine mission of him who uttered them were satisfactorily established. I refer to such declarations as the following;—" Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up."

ye

"When the

know that I am he."

Son of man is lifted up, then shall "And I, if I be lifted

"And I, if I be lifted up from the