Matthew 13:58

REFLECTIONS

Reader! let you and I pause over this sweet Chapter, and mark the condescending love of Jesus, in thus adopting his discourse, under the imagery of parables, surely it serves to teach us the tenderness of his heart towards his redeemed, as if to come down to the humblest capacities of his people; and that none might err in the apprehension, he varies his subject by illustrating under various similitudes the important truths relating to his kingdom. But that all might be impressed of the everlasting line of distinction between his children, and the children of the wicked One, under whatever figure, or parable, he states the subject Jesus never loseth sight of this. The good seed, or the leaven, the treasure hid in the field, or the good gathered into vessels, all are made to represent the very reverse of the way-side hearers, the stony ground, the thorns, and the tares; which uniformly set forth the state of the reprobate and the seed of the devil. In every part of this blessed Chapter, the Lord Jesus hath drawn, as with a sun-beam, the striking difference, and shewn that characters, springing from such different stocks, never can coalesce; so that the good seed may become tares, or the tares good seed. Lord Jesus! give thy people grace to discover, that amidst all their complaints of unprofitableness, and the like, still thy redeemed are thine, and the Lord. will own them. Oh! for grace, to have all our fruit in Jesus, and the end everlasting life.