and apt similitudes in the following passages. No one having put his hand to the PLOUGH and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.-Ye are God's HUSBANDRY, or cultivated field.'—A workman, that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly DIVIDING2 the word of truth.-Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word. Whatsoever a man SOWETH, that shall he REAP: he that soWETH to the flesh-lives a sensual life, shall from the flesh REAP destruction, but he that SOWETH to the spirit,-lives a rational life,-shall from the spirit REAP everlasting life.-Consider the ravens, they sow not, neither do they REAP, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. -I am the good SHEPHERD, and know my SHEEP, and am known of mine. The sheep hear his voice, and he calleth his own sheep by name (John x. 3.); and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him, for they know not the voice of strangers. (John x. 45.) -Fear not, LITTLE FLOCK, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. How strikingly is the parable of the sower, which, by seed, scattered promiscuously, and in every direction by an husbandman, and meeting a various fate according to the respective nature of the soil into which it fell, represents the different reception which Gospel doctrine would experience in the world, according to the different dispositions and principles of that mind into which it was admitted! He that soweth the GOOD SEED, is the son of man; the FIELD is the world; the GOOD SEED are the children of the kingdom; the TARES are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that SOWED them is the devil; the HARVEST is the end of the world; and the RFAPERS are the angels. As therefore the TARES are gathered and burnt in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world.—Whose FAN is in his hand, and he will thoroughly PURGE his FLOOR, and GATHER his WHEAT into the GARNER, but he will BURN UP the CHAFF with UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. By what an apt and awful similitude does St. Paul represent God's rejection of the Jews and admission of the heathens, by the boughs of an olive being lopped off, and the scion of a young olive ingrafted into the old tree (Romans

Θεου γεωργιου.

1 1 Cor. iii. 9. 2 2 Tim. ii. 15. (Epуarпy opdoroμovvra.) A beautiful and expressive image taken from a husbandman (pyarns) drawing his furrow even, and cutting the ground in

a direct line.

3 He calleth his own sheep by name. By this allusion it appears that it was customary for the Jewish shepherds to give their sheep particular names, as we do our horses, cows, dogs, &c.

4 Polybius, speaking of the flocks in the island of Cyrmon, notices a practice which illustrates in a very striking manner the allusion of our Saviour. When any strangers land there, in order to lay hold of them, the sheep immediately run away but when the shepherd blows his horn, they immediately run towards it. Nor, adds the historian, is it at all wonderful that they should thus obey the sound, since, in Italy, the keepers of swine do not observe the custom of Greece in following their herd; but, going before them to some distance, they sound their horn, and the herd immediately follow them, flocking to the sound; and so accustomed are they to their own horn, as to excite no little astonishment at the first hearing of it. Polybius, lib. xiv. pp. 654, 655. Hanoviæ, 1619.

xi. 17., &c.); and, continuing the same imagery, how strictly does he caution the Gentiles against insolently exulting over the mutilated branches, and cherishing the vain conceit that the boughs were lopped off merely that they might be ingrafted; for if God spared not the native branches, they had greater reason to fear lest he would not spare them; that they should remember that the Jews through their wilful disbelief of Christianity were cut off, and that they, the Gentiles, if they disgrace their religion, would in like manner forfeit the divine favour, and their present flourishing branches be also cut down. To inspire the Gentile Christians with humility, he concludes with assuring them that the Jewish nation, though they had experienced this severity of God, as he calls it, were not totally forsaken of the Almighty; that the branches, though cut down and robbed of their antient honours, were not abandoned to perish: when the Jews returned from their infidelity they would be ingrafted an omnipotent hand was still able to reinsert them into their original stock. For if thou, O heathen, the scion of an unfruitful wild olive, wert cut out of thy own native barren tree, and, by a process repugnant to the ordinary laws of nature, wert ingrafted into the fruitful generous olive-how much more will not those, who naturally belong to the antient stock, be, in future time, ingrafted into their own kindred olive! With what singular beauty and propriety is the gradual progress of religion in the soul, from the beginning to its maturity, represented by seed committed to a generous soil, which, after a few successions of day and night, imperceptibly vegetates-peeps above the surface-springs higher and higher and spontaneously producing, first, the verdant blade-then the ear-afterwards the swelling grain, gradually filling the ear (Mark iv. 27, 28.); and when the time of harvest is come, and it is arrived at its maturity, it is then reaped and collected into the storehouse. Beautiful illustrations and images like these, taken from rural life, must seal the strongest impressions, particularly upon the minds of Jews, who were daily employed in these occupations, from which these pertinent similes and expressive comparisons were borrowed.

V. Palestine abounded with generous wine; and in some districts the grapes were of superior quality. The canton allotted to Judah was celebrated on this account; and it is perhaps with reference to this circumstance, that the venerable patriarch said of his son Judah,-He washed his garments IN WINE, and his clothes in the BLOOD OF GRAPES. (Gen. xlix. 11.) In this district were the vales of Sorek and of Eshcol; and the cluster which the Hebrew spies carried from this last place, was so large as to be carried on a staff between two of them (Numb. xiii. 23.); Lebanon (Hos. xiv. 7.), and Helbon (Ezek. xxvii. 18.), were likewise celebrated for their exquisite wines.

1 Seminis modo spargenda sunt, quod quamvis sit exiguum, cum occupavit idoneum locum, vires suas explicat, et ex minimo in maximos auctus diffunditur. Seneca Opera, tom. ii. epist. 38. p. 134. edit. Gronovii. 1672.

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The Jews planted their vineyards most commonly on the south side of a hill or mountain, the stones being gathered out and the space hedged round with thorns or walled. (Isa. v. 1-6. compared with Psal. lxxx. and Matt. xxi. 33.) A good vineyard consisted of a thousand vines, and produced a rent of a thousand silverlings, or shekles of silver. (Isa. vii. 23.) It required two hundred more to pay the dressers. (Song of Solomon, viii. 11, 12.) In these the keepers and vine-dressers laboured, digging, planting, pruning, and propping the vines, gathering the grapes, and making wine. This was at once a laborious task, and often reckoned a base one. (2 Kings xxv. 12. Song of Solomon i. 6. Isa. xli. 5.) Some of the best vineyards were at Engedi, or perhaps at Baal-hamon, which might not be far distant, and at Sibmah. (Eccles. ii. 4. Song of Solomon i. 14. viii. 11. Isa. xvi. 9.) Vines also were trained upon the walls of the houses. (Psal. cxxviii. 3.) The vines with the tender grapes gave a good smell early in the spring (Song of Solomon ii. 13.), as we learn also, from Isa. xviii. 5. afore the harvest, that is, the barley harvest, when the bud is perfect, and the sour grape is ripening in the flower.

1

"The vintage followed the wheat harvest and the threshing (Levit. xxvi. 5. Amos ix. 13.), about June or July, when the clusters of the grapes were gathered with a sickle, and put into baskets (Jerem. vi. 9.), carried and thrown into the wine-vat, or wine-press, where they were probably first trodden by men and then pressed. (Rev. xiv. 18-20.) It is mentioned, as a mark of the great work and power of the Messiah, I have trodden the figurative wine-press alone; and of the people there was none with me. (Isa. Ixiii. 3.; see also Rev. xix. 15.) The vintage was a season of great mirth. Of the juice of the squeezed grapes were formed wine and vinegar. The wines of Helbon,2 near Damascus, and of Lebanon, where the vines had a fine › sun, were reckoned most excellent. (Ezek. xxvii. 18. Hos. xiv. 7.) The wines of Canaan being very heady, were commonly mixed with water for common use, as the Italians do theirs; and sometimes they scented them with frankincense, myrrh, calamus, and other spices (Prov. ix. 2. 5. Song of Solomon viii. 2.); they also scented their wine with pomegranates, or made wine of their juice, as we do of the juice of currants, gooseberries, &c. fermented with sugar. Wine is best when old and on the lees, the dregs having sunk to

1 The same mode of culture is practised in Persia to this day. Mr. Morier has given an engraving on wood illustrative of this custom, which beautifully elucidates the patriarch Jacob's comparison of Joseph to a fruitful bough, whose branches run over the wall. (Gen. xlix. 22.) Second Journey, p. 232. In the route between Jerusalem and the convent of Saint Elias, (which is situated about an hour's distance from that city,) Mr. Buckingham was particularly struck with the appearance of several small and detached square towers in the midst of the vinelands. These, his guide informed him, were used as watch-towers, whence watchmen to this day look out, in order to guard the produce of the lands from depredation. This fact will explain the use and intention of the tower, mentioned in Matt. xxi. 33. and Mark xii. 1.

2 At one time the wine of Helbon (which place Strabo terms Chalybon) was held in such repute, that it was appropriated exclusively to the use of the kings of Persia. Strabon. Geographia, tom. ii. p. 1043. edit. Oxon.

the bottom. (Isa. xxv. 6.) Sweet wine is that which is made from grapes fully ripe. (Isa. xlix. 26.) The Israelites had two kinds of vinegar, the one was a weak wine, which was used for their common drink in the harvest field, &c. (Ruth ii. 14.) as the Spaniards and Italians still do; and it was probably of this that Solomon was to furnish twenty thousand baths to Hiram, for his servants, the hewers that cut timber in Lebanon. (2 Chron. ii. 10.) The other had a sharp acid taste, like ours; and hence Solomon hints, that a sluggard vexes and hurts such as employ him in business; as vinegar is disagreeable to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes (Prov. x. 26.); and as vinegar poured upon nitre spoils its virtue; so he that singeth songs to a heavy heart, does but add to its grief. (Prov. xxv. 20.) The poor were allowed to glean grapes, as well as corn and other articles (Levit. xix. 10. Deut. xxiv. 21. Isa. iii. 14. xvii. 6. xxiv. 13. Mic. vii. 1.); and we learn that the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim was better than the vintage of Abiezer. (Judges viii. 2.) The vineyard was not to be pruned and dressed in the sabbatical year. (Levit. xxv. 3, 4.) The vessels in which the wine was kept were, probably, for the most part, bottles, which were usually made of leather, or goat skins, firmly sewed and pitched together. The Arabs pull the skin off goats in the same manner that we do from rabbits, and and sew up the places where the legs and tail were cut off, leaving one for the neck of the bottle, to pour from; and in such bags they put up and carry, not only their liquors, but dry things which are not apt to be broken; by which means they are well preserved from wet, dust, or insects. These would in time crack and wear out. Hence, when the Gibeonites came to Joshua, pretending that they came from a far country, amongst other things they brought wine bottles old and rent, and bound up where they had leaked. (Josh. ix. 4. 13.) Thus, too, it was not expedient to put new wine into old bottles, because the fermentation of it would break or crack the bottles. (Matt. ix. 17.) And thus David complains, that he is become like a bottle in the smoke; that is, a bottle dried, and cracked, and worn out, and unfit for service. (Psalm cxix. 83.) These bottles were probably of various sizes, and sometimes very large; for when Abigail went to meet David and his four hundred men, and took a present to pacify and supply him, two hundred loaves and five sheep ready dressed, &c. she took only Two bottles of wine (1 Sam. xxv. 18.); a very disproportionate quantity, unless the bottles were large. But the Israelites had bottles likewise made by the potters. (See Isa. xxx. 14. margin, and Jerem. xix. 1. 10. xlviii. 12.) We hear also of vessels called barrels. That of the widow, in which her meal was held, (1 Kings xvii. 12. 14.) was not probably very large; but those four in which the water was brought up from the sea, at the bottom of Mount Carmel, to pour upon Elijah's sacrifice and altar, must have been large. (1 Kings xviii. 33.) We read likewise of other vessels, which the widow of Shunem borrowed of her neighbours, to hold the miraculous supply of oil (2 Kings iv. 2-6.); and of the waterpots, or jars, or jugs, of stone, of considerable size, in which our

Lord caused the water to be converted into wine. (John ii. 6.) Grapes, among the Israelites, were likewise dried into raisins. Á part of Abigail's present to David was an hundred clusters of raisins (1 Sam. xxv. 18.); and when Ziba met David, his present contained the same quantity. (2 Sam. xvi. 1.; see also 1 Sam. xxx. 12. and 1 Chron. xii. 40.)"

It was a curse pronounced upon the Israelites, that upon their disobedience, they should plant vineyards and dress them, but they should neither drink of the wine, nor eat the grapes, for the worms should eat them. (Deut. xxviii. 39.) It seems that there is a peculiar sort of worms that infest the vines, called by the Latins Volvox and Convolvulus, because it wraps and rolls itself up in the buds, and eats the grapes up, when they advance towards ripeness, as the Roman authors explain it.

Besides other fruits that were common in Judæa, as dates, figs, cucumbers,3 pomegranates, they had regular plantations of olives, which were a very antient and profitable object of agriculture. So early as the time of Noah (Gen. viii. 11.) the branches of the olive tree were, and since that time have been among all nations, the symbol of peace and prosperity. Oil is first mentioned in Gen. xxviii. 18. and Job xxiv. 11.; which proves the great antiquity of the cultivation of this tree. Olives, in Palestine, are of the best growth, and afford the finest oil; whence that country is often extolled in the Scriptures on account of this tree, and especially in opposition to Egypt, which is destitute of good olives. (Numb. xviii. 12. Deut. vii. 13. xi. 14. xii. 17. xviii. 4.) The olive delights in a barren, sandy, dry, and mountainous soil: and its multiplied branches (which are very agreeable to the eye as they remain green throughout the winter) have caused it to be represented as the symbol of a numerous progeny,- -a blessing which was ascribed to the peculiar favour of God. (Psal. lii. 8. cxxviii. 3. Jer. xi. 16. Hos. xiv. 6.)

1 Investigator, No. IV. pp. 307-309.-The pleasing and instructive essay on the agriculture of the Israelites, in the first, third, and fourth numbers of this journal, contains the fullest account of this interesting subject extant in the English lan guage.

2 Bochart. Hieroz. p. 3.1. 4. c. 27.

3 On the cultivation of this valuable article of food in the East, Mr. Jowett has communicated the following interesting particulars. During his voyage to Upper Egypt, in February 1819, he says "We observed the people making holes on the sandy soil on the side of the river. Into these holes they put a small quantity of pigeons' dung and feathers, with the seed of melons or cucumbers. The value of this manure is alluded to in 2 Kings vi. 25. The produce of this toil I had an opportunity of seeing, in due season; that is, the following month of June. Extensive fields of ripe melons and cucumbers then adorned the sides of the river. They grew in such abundance, that the sailors freely helped themselves. Some guard, however, is placed upon them. Occasionally, but at long and desolate intervals, we may observe a little hut, made of reeds, just capable of containing one man; being, in fact, little more than a fence against a north wind. In these I have observed, sometimes, a poor old man, perhaps lame, feebly protecting the property. It exactly illustrates Isaiah i. 8. And the daughter of Zion is left lodge in a garden of cucumbers. The abundance of these most necessary vegetables brings to mind the murmurs of the Israelites; Numbers xi. 5, 6. We remember the cucumbers, and the melons, and the lecks, and the onions, and the garlic; but now our soul is dried away. Jowett's Researches, p. 127.

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