despite the passage which I have just quoted. And in modern times, the followers of Cocceius have been particularly earnest in affirming all parts of a parable to be significant.* Perhaps, I might mar the pleasure of some readers in the following noble passage, by saying from whence it was drawn: but the writer is describing the long and laborious care which he took to master the literal meaning of every word in the parables, being confident of the riches of inward truth which every one of those words contained; he goes on to say,-" Of my feelings and progress in studying the parables of our Lord, I have found no similitude worthy to convey the impression, save that of sailing through between the Pillars of Hercules into the Mediterranean Sea, where you have to pass between armed rocks, in a strait, and under a current—all requiring careful and skilful seamanship-but being past, opening into such a large, expansive, and serene ocean of truth, so engirdled round with rich and fertile lands, so inlaid with beautiful and verdant islands, and full of rich colonies and populous cities, that unspeakable is the delight and the reward it yieldeth to the voyager."

On a review of the whole controversy it may safely be said, that the advocates of the first-mentioned scheme of interpretation have been too easily satisfied with their favorite saying-" Every comparison must halt somewhere;"t-since one may well demand, "Where is the necessity?" There is no force in the reply, that unless it did so, it would not be an illustration of the thing, but the thing itself; since two lines do not become one, nor cease to be two, because they run parallel through their whole course; it needs not that they somewhere cease to be parallel, to prevent them from being one and the same. It may well be considered, too, whether these interpreters, in their fear of capricious allegories, have not run into an opposite extreme. It is quite true, to use an illustration which they sometimes employ, that a knife is not all edge, nor a harp all strings; that much in the knife, which does not cut, is yet of prime necessity, as the handle,-much, in the musical instrument, which is not intended to give sound, must yet not be wanting: or to use another comparison, that many circumstances "in Christ's parables are like the feathers which wing our arrows, which, though they pierce not like the head, but seem slight things and of a different matter from the rest, are yet requisite to make the shaft to pierce, and do both convey it to and penetrate the mark." It is true, also, that

*Teelman (Comm. in Luc. xvi., p. 34-52) defends this principle at length and with much ability.

† Omne simile claudicat.

† Theophylact (in SUICER's Thes., s. V. παραβολή): Ἡ παραβολὴ, ἐὰν διὰ πάντων σώζηται, οὐκ ἔστι παραβολὴ, ἀλλ ̓ αὐτὸ εκεῖνο, δι ̓ ἃ ἡ παραβολή.

BOYLE's Style of the Holy Scriptures; Fifth Objection. There is a remarkable

in the other scheme of interpretation, there is the danger lest a delight in the exercise of ingenuity on the part of the interpreter, and admiration of the ingenuity so exercised on the side of the readers and hearers, may cause it to be forgotten that the sanctification of the heart through the truth is the main purpose of all Scripture:-even as there will presently be occasion to observe how heretics, through this pressing of all parts of a parable to the uttermost, have been wont to extort from it almost any meaning that they pleased.

Yet, on the other hand, there is a shallow spirit ever ready to empty Scripture of the depth of its meaning, to exclaim-"This means nothing, this circumstance is not to be pressed;" and satisfying ourselves with sayings like these, we may fail to draw out from the word of God all the riches of meaning that are contained in it for us, we may fail to observe and to admire the wisdom with which the type was constructed to correspond with its antitype. For as a work of human art, a statue, for instance, is the more perfect in the measure that the life, the idea that was in the sculptor's mind, breathes out of and looks through every feature and limb, so much the greater being the triumph of spirit, penetrating through and glorifying the matter which it has assumed; so the more translucent a parable is in all parts with the divine truth which it embodies, the more the garment with which it is arrayed, is a garment of light, pierced through, as was once the raiment of Christ, with the brightness within,-illuminating it in all its recesses and corners, and leaving no dark place in it,-by so much the more beautiful and perfect it must be esteemed. It may be further answered, that of those who start with the principle that so much is to be set aside as

passage in Augustine (De Civ. Dei, 1. 16, c. 2), where he carries out this view still further; Non sanè omnia quæ gesta narrantur, aliquid etiam significare putanda sunt: sed propter illa quæ aliquid significant, etiam illa quæ nihil significant attexuntur. Solo enim vomere terra proscinditur, sed ut hoc fieri possit, etiam cætara aratri membra sunt necessaria. Et soli nervi in citharis atque hujusmodi vasis musicis aptantur ad cantum, sed ut aptari possint, insunt et cætera in compaginibus organorum, quæ non percutiuntur à canentibus, sed ea quæ percussa resonant his connectuntur. Ita in propheticâ historia dicuntur et aliqua, quæ nihil significant, sed quibus adhæreant quæ significant, et quomodo religentur. Cf. Con. Faust. 1. 22. c. 94. A Romish expositor, Salmeron, has a comparison something similar: Certum est gladium non omni ex parte scindere, sed unâ tantùm: nec enim per manubrium secat, neque per partem obtusam oppositam aciei, neque per cuspidem, sed tantùm per aciem secat. Et tamen nemo sanæ mentis dixerit aut manubrium aut cuspidem aut partem obtusam oppositam aciei, necessaria non esse ad scindendum: nam etsi per se ipsa non scindant, serviunt tamen ut pars quæ acuta est, et ad secandum nata, scindere fortiùs et commodiùs valeat. Ita in parabolis multa afferuntur, quæ etsi per se ipsa sensum spiritalem non efficiant, conducunt tamen ut parabola per illam partem scindat et secet, ad quod præstandum ab auctore proposita fuerat.

non-essential, scarcely are to be found any two agreed, when it comes to the application of their principle, concerning what actually is to be set aside; what one rejects, another retains, and the contrary. Moreover, it is always observable that the more this system is carried out, the more the peculiar beauty of the parable disappears, and the interest in it is weakened. For example, when Calvin will not allow the oil in the vessels (Matt. xxv.) to mean any thing, and when Storr, who, almost more than any other, would leave the parables bare trunks, stripped of all their foliage and branches, of all that made for beauty and ornament, denies that the Prodigal leaving his father's house has any direct reference to man's departure from the presence of his heavenly Father, it is at once evident of how much, not merely of pleasure, but of instruction, they would deprive us. It may be remarked too, in opposition to the interpretation of the parables merely in the gross, that when our Lord himself interpreted the two first which he delivered, those of the Sower, and of the Tares, it is more than probable that he intended to furnish us with a key for the interpretation of all. These explanations therefore are most important, not merely for their own sakes, but as laying down the principles and canons of interpretation to be applied throughout. Now in these the moral application descends to some of the minutest details of the narrative: thus, the birds which snatch away the seed sown, are explained as Satan who takes the good word out of the heart (Matt. xiii. 19), the thorns correspond to the cares and pleasures of life (Matt. xiii. 22), and much more of the same kind. "It must be allowed," says Tholuck, "that a similitude is perfect in proportion as it is on all sides rich in applications; and hence, in treating the parables of Christ, the expositor must proceed on the presumption that there is import in every single point, and only desist from seeking it, when either it does not result without forcing, or when we can clearly show that this or that circumstance was merely added for the sake of giving intuitiveness to

*De Parabolis Christi, in his Opusc. Acad., v. 1, p. 89.

† Auslegung der Bergpredigt, p. 201. With this agrees what Bishop Lowth says, De Sac. Poës. Heb., Pral. 10.

Vitringa: Placent mihi qui ex parabolis Christi Domini plus veritatis eliciunt, quàm generale quoddam præceptum ethicum, per parabolam illustratum et auditorum animis fortius infixum. Non quod audaciter pronunciare sustineam, ejusmodi institutionis aut persuasionis genus, si Domino nostro placuisset illud adhibere, cum summâ ejus sapientiâ non potuisse consistere. Contendo tamen de summâ sapientia qualis illa fuit Filii Dei, nos meritò plus præsumere, ac propterea, si parabolæ Christi Domini ita explicari queant, ut singulæ earum partes commodè et absque violentis contorsionibus transferantur ad œconomiam Ecclesiæ, illud ego explicationis genus tanquam optumum amplectendum, et cæteris præferendum existimo. Quantò enim plus solidæ veritatis ex Verbo Dei eruerimus si nihil obstet, tantò magis divinam commendabimus sapientiam.

the narrative. We should not assume any thing to be non-essential, except when by holding it fast as essential the unity of the whole is marred and troubled."*

It will much help us in this matter of determining what is essential and what not, if, before we attempt to explain the particular parts, we obtain fast hold of the central truth which the parable would set forth, and distinguish it in the mind as sharply and accurately as we can from all cognate truths which border upon it; for only seen from that middle point will the different parts appear in their true light. "One may compare," says a late writer on the parables, "the entire parable with a circle, of which the middle point is the spiritual truth or doctrine, and of which the radii are the several circumstances of the narration; so long as one has not placed oneself in the centre, neither the circle itself appears in its perfect shape, nor will the beautiful unity with which the radii converge to a single point be perceived, but this is all observed so soon as the eye looks forth from the centre. Even so in the parable, if we have recognized its middle point, its main doctrine, in full light, then will the proportion and right signification of all particular circumstances be clear unto us, and we shall lay stress upon them only so far as the main truth is thereby more vividly set forth."

There is another rule which it is important to observe, which at the same time is so simple and obvious, that were it not very frequently neglected, it would hardly be thought needful to be mentioned, but might be left to the common sense of every interpreter. It is this, that as in the explanation of the fable, the introduction (рoμúšov) and application (épúsov) claim to be most carefully attended to, so here what some have entitled the pro-parabola and epi-parabola, though the

* Out of this feeling the Jewish doctors distinguished lower forms of revelation from higher, dreams from prophetic communications thus, that in the higher all was essential, while the dream ordinarily contained something that was superfluous; and they framed this axiom,-"As there is no corn without straw, so neither is there any more dream without something that is apyóv, void of reality and insignificant." They would instance Joseph's dream (Gen. xxxvii. 9); the moon could not there have been well left out, when all the heavenly host did obeisance to him; yet this circumstance was thus apyóv, for his mother, who thereby was signified, was even then dead, and so incapable of rendering hereafter the homage to him which the others at last did. (See JOHN SMITH'S Discourses, p. 178.)

+ Lisco: Die Parabeln Jesu, p. 22; a sound and useful work. It has been translated into English-how, may be guessed by a single specimen. Having occasion to characterize VITRINGA'S Erklärung der Parabolen, Lisco observes of it thus: Ein über 1000 Seiten starkes Werk, breiter Sprache (a book more than a thousand pages thick, very diffuse), which however reappears in the translation: "A work of great power in many respects, in broad dialect."

other terms would have done sufficiently well, which are invariably the finger-posts pointing to the direction in which we are to look for the meaning, the key to the whole matter. These deserve the most attentive heed, as their neglect often betrays into the most untenable explanations; for instance, how many of the interpretations which have been elaborately worked out of the Laborers in the Vineyard, could never have been so much as once proposed, if heed had been paid to the context, or the necessity been acknowledged of bringing the interpretation into harmony with the saying, which introduces and winds up the parable. These helps to interpretation, though rarely or never lacking,* are yet given in no fixed or formal manner; sometimes they are supplied by the Lord himself (Matt. xxii. 14; xxv. 13); sometimes by the inspired narrators of his words (Luke xv. 1, 2; xviii. 1); sometimes, as the prologue, they precede the parable (Luke xviii. 9; xix. 11); sometimes, as the epilogue, they follow (Matt. xxv. 13; Luke xvi. 9). Occasionally a parable is furnished with these helps to its right understanding and application both at its opening and its close; as is that of the Unmerciful Servant (Matt. xviii. 23), which is suggested by the question which Peter asks (ver. 21), and wound up by the application which the Lord himself makes (ver. 35). So again the Parable, at Matt. xx. 1-15, begins and finishes with the same saying, and Luke xii. 16-20 is supplied with the same amount of help for its right understanding t

Again we may observe that an interpretation, besides being thus in accordance with its context, must be so without any very violent means being applied to bring it into such agreement; even as, generally the interpretation must be easy-if not always easy to be discovered, yet being discovered, easy. For it is here as with the laws of nature; the proleptic mind of genius may be needful to discover the law, but being discovered, it throws back light on itself, and commends itself unto all. And there is this other point of similarity also; it is the proof of the law that it explains all the phenomena and not merely some-that

* Tertullian (De Resur. Carn., c. 33): Nullum parabolam non aut ab ipso invenias edisseratam, ut de Seminatore in verbi administratione: aut à commentatore Evangelii præluminatam, ut judicis superbi et viduæ instantis ad perseverantiam orationes; aut ultrò conjectandam, ut arboris fici, dilatæ in spem, ad instar Judaicæ infructuositatis.

↑ Salmeron (Serm. in Evang. Par., p. 19) has a threefold division of the parable, which is worth noticing. There are three things, he says, which, in proceeding to interpret it, claim our attention; the radix or root out of which it grows, which may also be regarded as the final cause or scope with which it is spoken, which is to be looked for in the poμúdiov; next, the cortex or the outward sensuous array in which it clothes itself; and then the medulla, or inward core, the spiritual truth which it enfolds.