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Matthew 13:3. He spake many things unto them in parables— The word παραβολη, which we translate parable, signifies a comparison or simile; a transferring of the ideas or properties which are in one subject generally familiar and well known, to another less known and understood, in order to heighten and enliven that other the more to the mind. It is a putting of one thing for another, that the matter intended to be taught may not immediately appear from the bare letter, and the case put;but when the key is given may strike more fully and strongly on the mind; for a parable is exactly what we call "putting a case;" when one thing is said and supposed, with a design to teach, illustrate, and enforce, some other. Such are our Saviour's parables; so that, to understand them, we must look beyond the letter; in such as he has not himself interpreted, we shall find the key either from his general application, or from the connection wherein the parable stands with his miracles or his discourses. And while, carefully attending hereto, we explain the other circumstances agreeably to the subject in hand, and the analogy of faith, there is no doubt but we shall obtain all the profit which was intended to be conveyed to us by this most pleasing, beautiful, and persuasive method of instruction. That parables were very familiar, and much in use among the Eastern nations, and particularly those of Palestine, we learn from the concurrent evidence of all writers on the subject; and, for the most part, as Sir Isaac Newton (on Daniel, p. 148.) observes, "Both Christ, and his forerunner John, as well as the old prophets, were wont in their parabolical discourses to allude to things present, and such as immediately offered themselves." See the note on ch. Matthew 5:1; Matthew 5:14. These are some of the reasons why our Saviour spoke in parables: 1st, As a judicial punishment upon those who were hardened against, and ill disposed to the truth; and sometimes as a more lively method to convince and confute them, even from their own mouths: 2nd, As a means to awaken the attention and whet the inquiry of those who were well disposed, and to lead them to a serious examination and diligent searching after the truth, as a method the most natural, beautiful, and instructive, to teach, from common and familiar objects, the most divine and important lessons, and to imprint them on the memory. 3rdly, As a veil to the mysteries of his kingdom, and a method less offensive to convey some very ungrateful and unpalatable truths, such particularly as the rejection of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, &c. 4thly, Asa lesson of man's natural blindness and ignorance in spiritual matters, unless Christ, by his grace, opens the understanding and enlightens the mind. And all this, 5thly, to fulfil the prophesies concerning him in this respect, as well as to comply with the customs and manners of the nation with whom this method of instruction was familiar.

In this chapter our Lord delivers seven parables, directing the four former, as being of general concern, to all the people; the three latter to his disciples. He began with the parable of the sower, who cast his seed on different soils, which, according to their natures, brought forth either plentifully, or sparingly, or not at all. By this similitude he represented the different kinds of hearers, with the different effects which the doctrines of religion have upon them, according to their different dispositions. In some, these doctrines are suppressed altogether; in others, they produce the fruits of righteousness, more or less, according to the goodness of their hearts, through divine grace. A parable of this kind was highly seasonable, now that the multitude shewed such an itching desire to hear Christ's sermons, while perhaps they neglected the end for which they ought to have heard them. This parable too was exquisitely proper for an introduction to all the rest, as our Lord answers in it a very obvious and very important question: "The same sower Christ, and the same preachers sent by him, always sow the same seed; why has it not always the same effect?" He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. See Bengelius.

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Matthew 13:4. And when he sowed, &c. the fowls— And as he sowed, &c. the birds. It is observable, that our Lord points out the great hindrances of our bearing fruit, in the same order as they occur. The first danger is, that the birds will devour the seed; if it escape this, there is yet another danger, namely, lest it be scorched and wither away; it is not long after this that the thorns spring up and choke the good seed. A vast majority of those who hear the word of God receive the seed as by the way-side; of those who do not lose it by the birds, yet many receive it as on stony ground: many of those who receive it in a better soil, yet suffer the thorns to grow up and choke it; so that few comparatively even of those endure to the end, and bear fruit to perfection: and yet in all these cases it is not the will of God which hinders, but their own voluntary perverseness. See Mr. Wesley's notes on the New Testament.

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Matthew 13:5. Stony places— Rocky ground. The phrase, stony places, does not express the sense. There may be many loose stones, from which the place would properly be denominated stony, where the soil is both rich and deep. What is meant here is evidently continued rock, with a very thin cover of earth.

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Matthew 13:6. And when the sun was up— This was the reason that, upon the sun's appearing, they were scorched, &c. Prussian editors.

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Matthew 13:8. But other fell into good ground— But another part, falling on good ground, bare fruit; one grain yielding an hundred, another sixty, another thirty. Prussian editors. See Genesis 26:12. The fruitfulness of the seed which was sown on good ground, is not to be understood, says Macknight, of the field's producing a hundred times as much as was sown on it; but it is to be understood of a single grain producing a hundred grains, which, it might easily do where it met with a good soil, and was properly nourished; but there are many accidents by which the produce of a field, so rich as to be capable of nourishing a hundred grains by a single root, is reduced within ordinary bounds. The parable mentions some of them; part of the seed is trodden down by passengers, or destroyed by the birds, part is starved in bad soil among rocks, and part is choked by weeds.

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Matthew 13:17. Verily I say unto you, That, &c.— This is what sets the disciples above all prophets, and renders them greatest in the kingdom of heaven. See ch. Mat 11:11 and comp. Psalms 119:174. Luke, ii 25, 29, 30 Matthew 10:23-24.John 8:56; John 8:56. 1 Peter 1:1-10

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Matthew 13:19. When any one heareth, &c.— From this interpretation of the parable by our Saviour, we learn, that the seed signifies the doctrines of true religion; and the various kinds of ground, the various kinds of hearers: the comparison between God and the sower is frequent among the Jewish writers, and seed is among almost all nations used for doctrine or instruction. The ground by the highway side, which is apt to be beaten by men's treading upon it, is an image of those who have their hearts so hardened with impiety, that though they hear the Gospel preached, it makes no impression at all upon them; because they either hear it inattentively, or, if they attend, quickly forget it. This insensibility and inattention are strongly represented by the beaten ground along the highway, into which the seed never entering, it is bruised by the feet of men, or picked up by birds. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, or gospel, and understandeth, or considereth it not, (for the original word συνιεναι signifies both,) then cometh the wicked one, &c. The devil is said to come and catch the word from this sort of hearers, not because he has power to rob men of their knowledge, or religious impressions, by any immediate act; but because they expose themselves, through carelessness, to the whole force of the temptations which he lays in their way, and particularly to those which arise whether from the commerce of men, (a circumstance observed by St. Luke, who tells us that the seedwas trodden down,) or from their own head-strong lusts, which, like so many hungry fowls, fly to and quickly eat up the word out of their mind. The perturbation occasioned by the passions of this kind of hearers, and by the temptations to which they are exposed, renders them altogether inattentive in hearing; or if they attend, it hardens them against the impression of the word, and effaces the remembrance of it in an instant; insomuch, that the pernicious influence of evil passions and bad company cannot truly be represented by any lower figure, than that the word is taken away by the devil, whose agents such persons and lusts most certainly are. See Macknight. Dr. Campbell reads the last clause, This explaineth what fell by the way-side.

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Matthew 13:22. He also that received seed among the thorns— The ground full of thorns which sprang up with the seed and choked it, represents all those who receive the word into hearts full of worldly cares; which sooner or later destroy whatever convictions or good resolutions are raised by the word. Worldly cares are compared to thorns, not only because of their pernicious efficacy in choking the word, but because it is with great pains and difficulty that they are eradicated. In the parable, the hearers of this denomination are distinguished from those who receive the seed on stony ground, not so much by the effect of the word upon their minds, as by the different nature of each; for in both the seed sprang up, but brought forth no fruit. The stony-ground hearers will not retain the impressions made by the word; they have not root in themselves; no strength of mind; no firmness of resolution, to resist temptations from without. Whereas the thorny-ground hearers have the soil, but then it is filled with the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the love of pleasure, which sooner or later stifle the impressions of the word; and by this means, in the issue, they are as unfruitful as the former. But both are distinguished from the way-side hearers by this, that they receivethe word, and yield to its influences in some degree; whereas the others do not receive the word at all, hearing without attention; or, if they do attend, forgetting it immediately. The way-side hearers hold the first place in the parable, because they are by far more numerous than the rest; and the good-ground hearers the last, because they are the fewest in number. The phrase απατη του πλουτου, the deceitfulness of riches, is very elegant, and admirably expresses the various artifices by which people, in the pursuit of riches, excuse themselves from day to day, in putting off the ardent pursuit of genuine religion,—and the astonishing disappointment which often mingles itself with their labours, and even with their success. Comp. Proverbs 11:28. Luke 18:24. 1 Timothy 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 6:17. 2 Timothy 2:4; 2 Timothy 4:10.

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