men's treatment of the gospel.
Ezek. xx. 49. Then said I, Ah Lord God ! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables ?
THE word of God, by whomsoever spoken, should be received with reverence and godly fear. Great care indeed should be taken to examine whether the
word which is spoken in his name be agreeable to the sacred oracles ; but when that point is ascertained, then we should bow before it, and submit ourselves wholly and cheerfully to its directions. This is the plain dictate of reason and common sense : but yet it is far from being the regulating principle of men's actions ; for at the very time that men acknowledge the divine authority of the word delivered, they set themselves in a variety of ways to invalidate its force, and to withstand its influence. The Jews who came to inquire of Ezekiel had no doubt of his being a pro- phet, inspired of God to declare unto them his holy will. Yet when he did deliver to them the messages sent by his divine Master, they poured contempt upon them, and said, " Doth he not speak parables ?"
From hence we shall take occasion to shew,
I. How the messages of God are treated —
The import of the observation made by the Jews on Ezekiel's ministrations seems to have been, that his word was altogether so figurative and unintelligi- ble as to be unworthy of any serious attention. It maybe thought perhaps that this was a singular case; but it is, in fact, a just specimen of the way in which the messages of God have been treated from the beginning of the world —
[When Noah preached to the antediluvian world, he was regarded as a weak alarmist, who merited only their pity and their scorn. When Lot -warned his family of the impending judgments that would soon fall on Sodom and Gomorrha, " he seemed," we are told, " as one that mocked to his sons-in-law." When Jehu was informed by a prophet that God had destined him to assume the royal authority, the messenger was desig- nated by the title, that mad fellow ; " What said that mad fellow unto thee ?" If we come to the New-Testament dispen- sation, we find our blessed Lord himself, who " spake as never man spake," treated in the same contemptuous manner : many of the Jews said of him, " He hath a devil, and is mad : why hear ye hima ?" and again, " Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devilb ?" The name, " that deceiver," seems to have been given him by his enemies as a common
a John x. 20. b John viii. 48.