confidered as a prophecy; and it is a prophecy verified by all history, and indeed by the obfervation of every day; announcing to us, that the effects of religious truths, and of religious impreffions of all kinds, depend upon the difpofition of mind with which they are received; fo that, though the doctrines of the gospel be the fame things in themselves, the consequence of the general promulgation of them will be very

various.

Our Lord seems to lay peculiar ftrefs on the doctrine of this parable, by closing it with faying, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; and if we properly attend to it, we shall find that it abounds with the most important inftruction, both to those who preach the gospel, and those who hear it. At present I shall consider it in no more than one fingle point of view, endeavouring to illuftrate and inculcate one important truth · plainly intimated to us in it, viz. that all the benefit we are authorized to expect from the gospel arises from the natural effect that

the

the

DIVINE INFLUENCE.

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great truths and motives of it are calculated to produce upon the mind; that the interpofition of the Divine Being in the difpenfation of the gospel confifts folely in imparting those truths, and suggesting those motives, and not at all in giving any fupernatural efficacy to the truths or motives after they are prefented.

Our Lord evidently compares himself, and his apostles, to perfons who merely fow good feed (which the earth could not bring forth of itself) and this they are represented as fcattering promifcuously, without distinction of places or foils, which were just as nature, or previous circumstances, had made them. Confequently, where the foil was previously weli difpofed to receive it, the produce was ample; but where it was, on any account, indifpofed, the produce was infignificant, or none at all.

The preachers of the gofpel, here exhibited in the character of husbandmen, are not represented as altering the quality or

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condition of the foil itself; and therefore we find that the gofpel was fometimes a favour of life, and at other times of death. So though it is elsewhere compared to light, which is generally a very welcome thing, yet fome are faid to hate this light, because their deeds were evil. Also, though the evidences of the divine miffion of Chrift were fairly and equally propofed to all; yet our Saviour fays, that they only who do the will of God, i. e. those who are upright and previously well difpofed, shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God. Others would be fo prejudiced, that the strongest evidence would not be properly attended to, and therefore could not have its proper effect; in so much that he exprefly tells these bigoted Jews, that they would not come to him that they might have life; and applying to them a prophecy of Isaiah, he represents them as fo far infatuated by vicious prejudices, that it was not in their power to receive the Gospel. And unless they had had better difpofitions of mind, which he did not pretend to give them, it was really and truly impoffible.

In

In another parable our Lord compares human nature not to the foil, as in my text, but to a fig-tree growing in it, Luke xiii. 6--9, and in this the nature or quality of the tree itself is represented as unaltered, except by the effect that digging round it and dunging it might produce.

A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and fought fruit thereon, and found none. Then faid be unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come feeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none; cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground. And be, anfwering, faid unto him, Lord let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it. And if it bear fruit, well; and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down.

In both these parables, you fee (and I doubt not it will be found to be the fame in every other, in which the reformation and inftruction of men are reprefented) the nature of man is fuppofed to be a thing that is never operated upon by the divine power

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immediately, but always through the medium of certain means, without the mind, naturally adapted to that end. When man is the foil, nothing is done to it befides scattering proper feed upon it, and this feed will take root, or not, according to the previous quality and ftate of the foil; and when man is a tree, nothing is done to that, but only to the foil in which it grows; fo that tho' the figures are different, the meaning of the two parables, the instruction we are led to derive from them, is the fame; and if we attend to it, we shall find it to be very important indeed, fuch as, when fully apprehended, cannot fail to alarm and to aroufe us to the utmoft.

We clearly learn from them, that the agency of God upon the minds of men, though real, and conftant (for in him we live, and move, and have our being) is not immediate, or miraculous (for if it were immediate, it would be the fame thing with what we do term miraculous) but always through the medium of the natural means of instruction and reformation; and conse

quently