Ft7 I observe, that Christ and his forerunner John in their parabolical discourses were wont to allude to things present. The old Prophets, when they would describe things emphatically, did not only draw parables from things which offered themselves, as from the rent of a garment, 1 Samuel 15; from the sabbatic year, Isaiah 37; from the vessels of a Potter, Jeremiah 18, &c. but also when such fit objects were wanting, they supplied them by their own actions, as by rending a garment, 1 Kings 11; by shooting, 2 Kings 13; by making bare their body, Isaiah 20; by imposing significant names to their sons, Isaiah 8; Hosea 1; by hiding a girdle in the bank of Euphrates, Jeremiah 13; by breaking a potter’s vessel, Jeremiah xix; by putting on fetters and yokes, Jeremiah xxvii; by binding a book to a stone, and casting them both into Euphrates, Jeremiah 51; by besieging a painted city, Ezekiel 4; by dividing hair into three parts, Ezekiel 5; by making a chain, Ezekiel 7; by carrying out household stuff like a captive and trembling, Ezekiel 12, &c. By such kind of types the prophets loved to speak. And Christ being endued with a nobler prophetic spirit than the rest, excelled also in this kind of speaking, yet so as not to speak by his own actions, that was less grave and decent, but to turn into parables such things as offered themselves. On occasion of the harvest approaching, he admonishes his disciples once and again of the spiritual harvest, John 4:35; Matthew 9:37. Seeing the lilies of the field, he admonishes his disciples about gay clothing, Matthew 6:28. In allusion to the present season of fruits, he admonishes his disciples about knowing men by their fruits, Matthew 7:16. In the time of the Passover, when trees put forth leaves, he bids his disciples learn a parable from the fig tree: when its branch is yet tender and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh, &c. Matthew 24:32; Luke 21:29. The same day, alluding both to the season of the year and to his passion, which was to be two days after, he formed a parable of the time of fruits approaching, and the murdering of the heir, Matthew 21:53. Alluding at the same time, both to the money-changers whom he had newly driven out of the Temple, and to his passion at hand; he made a parable of a Noble-man going into a far country to receive a kingdom and return, and delivering his goods to his servants, and at his return condemning the slothful servant because he put not his money to the exchangers, Matthew 25:14; Luke 19:12. Being near the Temple where sheep were kept in folds to be sold for the sacrifices, he spake many things parabolically of sheep, of the shepherd, and of the door to the sheepfold; and discovers that he alluded to the sheepfolds which were to be hired in the market-place, by speaking of such folds as a thief could not enter by the door, nor the shepherd himself open, but a porter opened to the shepherd, John 10:1, 3. Being in the mount of Olives, Matthew 36:30; John 14:31; a place so fertile that it could not want vines, he spake many things mystically of the Husbandman, and of the vine and its branches, John 15:Meeting a blind man, he admonished of spiritual blindness, John 9:39. At the sight of little children, he described once and again the innocence of the elect, Matthew 18:2; Matthew 19:13. Knowing that Lazarus was dead and should be raised again, he discoursed of the resurrection and life eternal, John 11:25, 26.
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