Matthew 13

How sad is it to see religion wearing a coat of diverse colors, to see Christians of so many opinions, and going so many different ways. It is Satan has sown these tares of division (Matthew 13:39); he first divided men from God, and now divides one man from another. 2. One in a…

Resp. Fourfold, 1. An historical or dogmatical faith, which is the believing the truths revealed in the word, because of divine authority. 2. There is a temporal faith, which lasts but for a time, and vanishes (Matthew 13:21). Yet he has not root in himself, but endures for a wh…

The hypocrite, who has only some smack or taste of religion (as one tastes a gargle) may fall away. 4. And have felt the powers of the world to come.] That is, they may have such apprehensions of the glory of heaven, as to be affected with it, and seem to have some joy in the th…

Quest. But what is it to have other gods besides the true God? I fear upon search we have more idolaters among us than we are aware of. Resp. To trust in any thing more than God, is to make it a God. 1. If we trust in our riches, then we make riches our God: we may take comfort,…

It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. The saints' bodies then shall shine as sparkling diamonds (Matthew 13:43). Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun.

I was an hungred and you gave me meat, thirsty and you gave me drink, naked and you clothed me: Thus God will set a trophy of honor upon all his children at the last day. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). 18. If God b…

Quicquid cor non facit, non sit; in religion, what the heart does not do, is not done. Therefore Christ says of some, Hearing they hear not (Matthew 13:13). How could that be?

This is a great hindrance to the word preached. The seed which fell among thorns was choked, (Matthew 13:22). An emblem of the word being preached to a covetous hearer.

Covetousness hinders the efficacy of the word preached. In the parable the thorns (which Christ expounded to be the cares of this life) choked the good seed (Matthew 13:7). Many sermons lie dead, buried in earthly hearts.

You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. It was the devil that sowed another man's ground (Matthew 13:25). But how is the hedge of this commandment trodden down in our times!

Nothing does prejudice us but unbelief. Unbelief stops the current of God's mercy from running: It shuts up God's bowels, closes the orifice of Christ's wounds, that no healing virtue will come out (Matthew 13:58): He could do no mighty works there because of their unbelief. Why…

Many take a prejudice at religion, and on this rock dash their souls; they are prejudiced at Christ's person, his truths, his followers, his ways. (1.) They are prejudiced at his person (Matthew 13:57): And they were offended in him; what is there in Christ that men should be of…

When the fowler sees a bird sit still and perch upon the tree, now he shoots it. So when Satan observes us to sit still, now he shoots his fiery darts of temptation at us (Matthew 13:25); while men slept the enemy sowed tares. So while men sleep in sloth Satan sows his tares.

Many desire heaven but will not come up to the price. Affections of joy may be stirred: in the Parable the second sort of hearers are said to receive the Word with joy (Matthew 13:20). What was this but to have the affections moved with delight in hearing: yet that this did not…

Thus may young men travel for learning or the tongues, especially such as intend thereby to fit themselves for public service, so it be with safety of religion, and security of conscience. Sixthly, if it be for the practice of a man's lawful calling, as for traffic: and thus Mer…

The other sort are they, which being baptized in the Church, hear the word effectually, and receive the Lord's Supper worthily, to their salvation; because God doth establish his Covenant in their hearts. This difference is plain in Scripture, in the parables of the dragnet, (Ma…

Yea, this is one main point that Paul urges to Timothy, in both his Epistles; to keep faith, and a good conscience. And our Savior Christ in one of his parables, Matthew 13:44, compares the kingdom of heaven, to a treasure hid in the field; which, when a man finds, he hides it,…

He says not, If riches increase, refuse them; but, set not thy heart on them: and thus much of these Questions. Now this practice of the Patriarchs is as necessary for us in these days as ever it was; for the cause why we profit little after much hearing of God's word, is this:…

The laws of this kingdom are the word of God in the books of the old and new testament. Therefore it is called the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 13), the Gospel of the kingdom (Mark 1:13), the rod of his mouth (Isaiah 11:4), the arm of God (Isaiah 53:1). As a king by his laws bring…

A man may go with a heedless spirit from ordinance to ordinance, abide all his days under the choicest teachings, and yet never be improved by them. For heart neglect is a leak in the bottom — no heavenly influences, however rich, abide in that soul (Matthew 13:3-4). The heart t…

What is the finest and purest beauty of mortals compared to the incomparable beauty of the saints in the resurrection? Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matthew 13:43). In this hope you part with them; therefore act in a manner consi…

3. Neither will we speak to these sovereign causes on God's part, who in His holy justice gives up people to unfruitfulness, when they receive not the truth in love. Neither Fourthly, shall we insist on these causes that may arise from the Devil, who waits on wherever the Word i…

1. You would not take up our meaning in it so, as if we made every common work that lively means may have on the hearers of the Gospel, to be conversion; the preaching of the Word will sometimes make folks tremble, as we see in Felix, and will waken convictions and terrors in th…

We call you then to Historical Faith, as necessary, though not sufficient, but not to this Faith of Miracles, it being neither necessary nor sufficient. A third sort of Faith is Temporary Faith, spoken of in Matthew 13, and set out under the parable of the seed sown on stony gro…

And the reason of this is, 1. Because there is nothing that is not saving, but a natural man may have it; now, this doctrinal faith is not saving, and so a natural man may have it — yea, the devils believe and tremble; and James does not dispute with these to whom he writes on t…

For, though they believed it to be truth which He spoke, yet they rested not on Him. So in the parable of the sower, (Matthew 13), there are three grounds that receive the seed, which implies in two of them, at least a kind of believing, but the fourth ground is only good. 3. Be…

The conduct of many among ourselves is a sad proof of it, for we are afraid that many of you do not believe to this day, though there has been among you much, long, many years, and powerful preaching of the gospel, but you are still living without faith, and perishing. If this b…

The very hazard of a soul, will be like a fire burning the heart that is tender and zealous of the spiritual good of souls. 3. The respect that a faithful minister has to the duty in his hand, has influence on this; for such a one loves to perform his duty neatly, and to go neat…

You will find yourselves in them again and again ranked and classed according to your different spiritual estates, and the various cases and conditions of your souls, and wonderful discoveries made of yourselves to yourselves, that I somewhat doubt, if there be so much as one so…

Yet these ways are among themselves all false, and they do not agree one with another. Consideration 1. The gospel is the will of God from heaven; yet it is a riddle, a parable not understood (Matthew 13:14). In the Law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips wil…

And man is led and taken with reason. Christ is a convincing thing, and invincibly binds reason: so the forlorn Son, before he returns to his Father, argues (Luke 15:17), My Father has bread, he gives it to servants, and I am a starving son; therefore I'll return to my Father; a…

Answ. The argument is strong for us; the Apostle speaks of the Gospel-truth; but he will not have the Gospel preached to Samaritans (Matthew 10), to Bithinians, and thousands others. 2. He will not open the hearts of thousands that hear the Gospel, because he will (Matthew 11:28…

Because in Scripture phrase, there are more ways of having Christ requisite for the knowledge of every soul, I thought it therefore not amiss to open those other ways by which in Scripture we are said to have Christ. Secondly, as therefore we have him first by worshiping of him,…

1. To show us who is our grand enemy, the Devil, who sought the misery and destruction of mankind, as Christ did our salvation. And therefore he is called [〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉], The Enemy (Matthew 13:39): The Enemy that sowed them is the Devil. And he is called also [〈 in…

They know the least believer (Matthew 18:10): Take heed that you offend not one of these little ones, for I say to you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven. And they are at length to gather them from the four winds (Matthew 13:41…

The Devil is the deceiver and grand architect of all wickedness; the Flesh is the principle that he works upon, or that rebelling faculty within us, that would be pleased before God; the World is the bait, by which the devil would deceive us, and steal away our hearts from God,…

The entrance into God's word gives light (Psalm 119:130). In this respect Christ says, The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, hidden in three pecks of meal: because God's kingdom is set up in the heart at the first upon very small beginnings (Matthew 13:33). This must teach us to…

Again experience shows, that, that which is sown, may degenerate into another kind. Answer: It is not necessary that proverbial sentences should be true at all times, and in every particular: if they be true for the most part, or in that for which they are brought, it is suffici…

To conclude, after he had spent his whole life in contempt, and continually exposed to shame and derision; was he not cruelly and shamefully put to death, by which he was to begin his kingdom? Yet notwithstanding all this, he grew into an infinite greatness, even as a great tree…

Let men make never so many laws, and that in the best form they can devise, yet they can not bring us to true righteousness: they may well bring us to some shadows of it, but they shall never attain so far as to express it to the life. He also therewithal shows the way how to pr…

And this was regarded by the inhabitants of Nazareth as a fair excuse for rejecting him in their turn. 24. Verily, I say to you He reproaches them with the blame of preventing him from exerting his power among them as he did in other places, by working miracles: for the unbelief…

By giving this name to riches, he intends to render them an object of our suspicion, because for the most part they involve their possessors in unrighteousness. Though in themselves they are not evil, yet as it rarely happens that they are obtained without deceit, or violence, o…

Matthew 13:1-17 1. And on the same day Jesus went out of the house, and sat down near the sea.

Matthew 13:18-23 18. Hear therefore the parable of the sower.

Matthew 13:31-35 31. He delivered another parable to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard, which a man took and sowed in his field:

Matthew 13:53-58 53. And it happened, when Jesus had concluded these discourses, “Quand Iesus ent acheve ces similitudes-ci;” — “when Jesus had concluded these parables,” that he departed thence.

The word leaven is very evidently used by Christ as contrasted with the pure and uncorrupted word of God. In a former passage, (Matthew 13:33,) Christ had used the word in a good sense, when he said that the Gospel resembled leaven; See page 127 of this volume.

See p. 104 of this volume. under Matthew 13:12. 30. And cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.

In this second clause, Christ reproves another fault, which is, that by the variety of their thoughts they throw difficulties in their own way. By saying that thoughts arise, he means that the knowledge of the truth is choked in them in such a manner, that seeing they do not see…

But this is the spirit of stupidity and of giddiness with which God intoxicates the reprobate, after having long contended with their malice. Meanwhile, let us learn that, when they were bewitched by the enchantments of Satan, the glory of God, however manifest, was afterwards h…