be it what it will, which he has provided for us, our Hopes will never fail; we shall be ftedfaft and unmoveable, knowing that our Labour, however difficult here, shall not be in vain in the Lord: For in due Seafon we fball reap, if we faint not.

VOL. III.

DISCOURSE

MATTHEW xiii. 29.

But be faid, Nay; left while ye gather up the Tares, ye root up alfo the Wheat with them.

O underftand the Text we must look back as far as the twentyfourth Verse of this Chapter, where our Saviour puts forth a Parable, comparing the Kingdom of Heaven to a Man who fowed good Seed in his Field; but while Men flept, his Enemy came and fowed Tares among the Wheat. When they both sprung up and appeared in the Field, the Servants, under a Surprize at the Disappointment, report it to their Master;

O 2

Sir,

Sir, didft not thou fow good Seed in thy Field? from whence then bath it Tares? He faid unto them, An Enemy hath done this. The Servants reply, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? In Anfwer to which follow the Words of the Text, But he said, Nay; left while ye gather up the Tares, ye root up also the Wheat with them.

Take away the Drefs of Parable, and what our Saviour here delivers amounts to this: There will always be a Mixture in the World of good and bad Men, which no Care or Diligence can prevent; and though Men may and will judge, that the Wicked ought immediately to be cut off by the Hand of God, yet God judges otherwise, and delays his Vengeance for wife and juft Reasons; fparing the Wicked at prefent for the fake of the Righteous; referving all to that great Day in which the divine Justice shall be fully displayed, and every Man fhall receive according to his own Works.

The View of this Parable has, in fome Parts of it, I think, been misapprehended. It is intended to represent the neceffary Condition of Mankind, fome being good, fome bad; a Mixture which, from the very Nature of Mankind, is always to be expected;

and

and to justify God in delaying the Punishment of thofe Sins, which all the World think are ripe for Vengeance. This being the View of the Parable, it is going out of the Way to confider the particular Causes to which the Sins of Men may be afcribed; for the Queftion is not, from whence the Sins of Men arife, but why, from whatever Cause they spring, they are not punished? In the Parable therefore our Lord affigns only a general Reason of the Wickedness of the World, An Enemy hath done this. But there are, who think they fee another Reafon affigned in the Parable, namely, the Carelessnefs of the publick Governors and Rulers, intimated in thofe Words, But while Men flept, his Enemy came and fowed Tares among the Wheat: And this Text always finds a Place in fuch Complaints. And there is indeed no Doubt, but that the Negligence of Governors and Magiftrates, Civil and Ecclefiaftical, may be often one Caufe of the Ignorance and Wickedness of the People: But that it is affigned as a Cause in the Parable cannot be proved; for these Words, while Men flept, instead of charging the Servants with Negligence, plainly fhew, that no Care or Diligence of theirs could prevent the Enemy.

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