and SAVIOUR, JESUS CHRIST, and his APOSTLES, &c.. 185 Further to convince the people that he ailed agreeable to his charael.er, in keep- ing company with publicans and finners, our Lord told them, that the true intention of his coming was to recover thofe who had wandered from the paths of virtue, and reflore them to God the rightful owner; The Son ofman is come to feek and to fave Mat which is loft. While Jesus continued in the houfe of Zaccheus the publican, he fpake a parable to his followers, who fup- poled, at his arrival in the royal city, he would ere& the Iong-expelled kingdom of the Mefliah : A certain nobleman, Paid he, went into a far country to receive for him- ,felf a kingdom, and to return. And he called his . ten fervants, and delivered to them tenpounds, andfaid unto them, Occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and fent ameage after him, Paying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pats, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he com- manded thefe fervants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the firji, faying, Lord, thy pound kath gained ten pounds. And he Paidunto him, Well, thou goodfervant; becaufe thou haft beenfaithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And thefecond came, faying, Lord, thy pound bath gained five pounds. And he Paid likevnfe to him, be thou alfo over five cities. And another carne, Paying, Lord, behold, here is thypound, which Ihave kept laid up in a napkin: for I feared thee, becaufe thou art an auftere man : thou take up that thou layedit not down, and reap that thou didit not faro. And hefaith unto him, out of Mine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked fervant. Thou kneweft that I was an autiere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that Idid not for : wherefore thengave/d not thou my mo- ney into the bank, that at mycoming Inight have required mine own with ufury? And fiefaid unto them th¢tflood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that No. 16. hath ten pounds. (And theyPaid unto him. Lord, he hath ten pounds). For Ifay unto you, That unto every one which hath fliall be given ; andfrom him that hath not, even that he hathfhall be taken away from him.. But thole mine enemies, which would not that Ifhould reign over them, bring hither, and flay them before me. We have the characters ofthree forts of men in this parable delineated by our bleífed Sas jour himfelf; namely, the true difciples of the Meffiah, the hypocrites, and the openly prophane: and the treat- ment thefe fervants met with, reprefents the final fentences that will be patted upon them by the awful Judge of the whole earth. The true difciples !hall be rewarded with the honours and pleafures of immor- tality, the hypocrites !tripped of all the advantages they fo often boafted, and loaded with eternal infamy, and the open enemies of CHRIST, in proportion to the degree of their guilt, fhall fuffer fevere punifhment. ' Although this be the general fenfe of the parable, yet it has alto a particular relation to the time when it was fpoken ; and was intended to teach the difciples, that though they might imagine that the Meffiah's king. dom was fpeedily to be ere&ed, and they were loon to partake of it's happinefs, yet this was not to happen before the death of their Mailer ; that they themfelves mull perform a long and laborious courte of fervices, before they received their eternal reward. That after his relurrection, when he had obtained the kingdom, he would return from his feat of majefty, and reckon kith all his fervants, and reward every one according to the improvements he had made in the truft committed to his care ; and that he would execute, in an exemp lary manner, his vengeance on thofe who refuted to let him reign over them, and did all in their power to binder theere/l:ion of his kingdom among others. After (peak- ing this parable, Jasus left the houle of Zaccheus the publican, and continued his journey towards Jerufalem, where he Y y propofed
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