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not; but afterwards he repented, and

went.

30. And he came to the second, and said likewise; and he answered, and said, I go, Sir; and went not.

31.

Whether of them twain, " of the two," did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first.

The design of this parable is to show that those who appear most likely to perform their duty are not the most ready to do it. The son who refused to work in the vineyard afterwards goes thither; while he who promised to go neglects to fulfil his engagement.

Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

None seemed more unlikely, at first view, to become Christians, than the class of people here inentioned: yet they had fewer prejudices to overcome, and were more likely to receive the gospel, than the scribes and Pharisees, who made great pretensions to religion.

32. For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, rather, " unto you who profess righteousness,” and ye believed him not; but the publicans and harlots believed him. And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterwards, that ye might believe him.

It is not the righteousness of John, but the righteousness of the Pharisees, of which Christ speaks in

this verse.

REFLECTIONS..

1. The conduct of Christ towards the fig-tree affords an instructive lesson to those who carry a fair show of religion, but do not possess it in reality.---There are many who assume the appearance of devotion; who make large professions of their attachment to the gospel of Christ, and who are very constant in their attendance upon the ordinances of religion; but they possess not the temper, and practise not the duties, which Christianity requires. Although their conduct in general may appear unexceptionable, there is some passion to which they abandon themselves; the love of pleasure, the love of gain, or of honour; and to which they sacrifice every other interest. Such characters may impose upon men, weak and ignorant like themselves, and procure the reputation of great excellence; but they cannot deceive an omniscient Being. He requires something more than the appearance of religion, and partial obedience: he expects that a solid foundation be laid for our duty in the affections of the heart, and that his laws be uniformly and constantly observed. Where this is not done, professions of religion afford him no pleasure: he will destroy without mercy those who shall make them; they shall be blasted and withered like the barren fig-tree. Let all those who assume the appearance of religion, without the reality, remember that the pains they take to acquire or preserve a fair character will afford them no lasting benefit. The time is coming when their barrenness will be detected, and they themselves shall be withered.

2. The success of John, in gaining proselytes from among the lowest and vilest of the people, may afford us ground for encouragement in communicating relig ious instruction. If those upon whom we expected to

make a favourable impression should deceive us, by continuing hardened and impenitent, we may be more successful in other instances, where we expected little good. It is the usual conduct of Providence, to disappoint what we think our best established expectations, in order to teach us to rely principally upon God, and not upon our own exertions. "In the morning, therefore, sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand: for thou knowest not which will prosper, whether this or that; or whether they shall be both alike good."

Matthew xxi. 33. to the end.

33. Hear another parable. There was a certain housholder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it, "fenced it," round about, and digged a wine-press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country, rather, “went from home."

In the preceding verse Jesus had reminded the Scribes and Pharisees of their guilt in rejecting John the Baptist: he now proceeds to represent the crime of the whole nation, in rejecting and ill-using all the other messengers of God, who were sent to instruct and reform them, from the earliest period to the present times; and particularly, in destroying the greatest and most honourable of them all, his beloved Son. For these offences, he now tells them, they would be deprived of the peculiar privileges which they enjoyed under the Mosaic dispensation, and visited with the severest judgments. As these were offensive truths, Christ does not deliver them in plain language, but under a parable, which, however, they would understand without much difficulty, as it had already been used by one of their prophets. See Isa. v. 1. where the prophet com

pares the children of Israel to a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. The housholder is here said not only to have set a fence about the vineyard, to defend it from the ravages of wild beasts, but likewise to have digged a wine-press in it: this is agreeable to the custom of the east, where wine-presses are not moveable, as with Europeans, but formed by digging hollow places in the ground, and surrounding them with mason-work*. The tower here mentioned was a small turret, in which a watch was stationed, to guard the vineyard from thieves, when the fruit was ripe; which was therefore so situated, as to overlook the whole vineyard. This was occasionally used by the proprietor for pleasure †.

The vineyard with its appurtenances represents the Mosaic dispensation of religion, which was attended with many privileges and advantages. The husbandmen to whom it was let out were the Jews.

34. And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it.

God sent his prophets to exhort the Jews to lead a holy life; the fruit which might naturally be expected from those who enjoyed the advantages of a divine revelation.

35. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another.

Mark and Luke and some versions of Matthew read, beat one, threw stones at another, and killed another. The meaning of this is that the Jews, irritated by the severity with which they were reproved by the prophets, treated them with all kind of ill usage, and eyen put some of them to death.

* Harmer's Observations, Vol. 1. p. 392.
+ Ibid.

Vol. 2. p. 241.

Griesbach in loc.

36.

Again he sent other servants, more, i. e. greater, or more honourable, than the first; and they did unto them likewise.

God, although highly displeased at the reception which his messengers met with from the Jews, did not proceed to execute his vengeance upon them immediately; but manifested the greatest mercy and forbearance, raising up other prophets, more eminent for the excellence of their character or their miraculous endowments than the first; yet these were not better treated than their predecessors.

37. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.

The housholder had good reason to expect that the husbandmen, although they despised and ill-treated his servants, had not so far lost all respect for himself, as to abuse his son, his dear child. In the same manner there was reason to suppose that, although ordinary messengers who had been sent to the Jews were persecuted and slain; yet that one who was honoured with the superior title of Son of God, and who appeared, by the extraordinary things that were revealed to him, and the numerous miracles which he wrought, to be the peculiar object of divine affection, would have been attended to and respected. There is no intimation given here that the last messenger differed in nature from the first, or that he was of a superior order of beings. He was a man like unto them, and only superior to the other members of the houshold, as the son is superior to the servant; more dear to the master, and standing in a more honourable relation to him.

38. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.

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