other motive than a selfish regard for his own ease and quiet; but lest these should be continually disturbed and broken in upon, he does her right, that so he may be rid of her, that she may not plague nor vex him any more, as it was the same motive, though of course in a much milder form, which moved the disciples to ask for the woman of Canaan, that her prayer might be granted: "Send her away, for she crieth after us."* (Matt. xv. 23.) Indeed this parable and that miracle form altogether an interesting parallel. (Compare Sirac. xxxv. 17.)

Between the parable and its application,—that is, between ver. 5 and 6,-it is likely that the Lord paused for a while, and then again resumed his discourse: "Hear what the unjust judge saith; and shall not God avenge his own elect?" In the first clause of the sentence the emphasis should be laid on the word “unjust;" in the other, the epithet of goodness which should complete the antithesis is omitted, as being necessarily included in the name, God;-if the unjust judge acts thus, shall not the just God avenge his own elect? And the antithesis is to be carried through all the members of the sentence: the righteous God is not only opposed to the unrighteous judge, but the elect, the precious before God, to the widow, the despised among men; their prayers to her clamor; and the days and nights during which those prayers are made,

black and blue? But the use of so strong a term is very characteristic of the man described. Bengel: Hyperbole judicis injusti et impatientis personæ conveniens— it is exactly this exaggeration of language which selfishness uses in the things which threaten its own ease and enjoyment; and we have numerous examples of a like usage of words; thus σkúλλew, to vex or annoy, means properly to flay; and the Spanish ahorcar, used much in the same sense, means rightly, to put to death by hanging; and our English to plague, is properly, to lash; and these examples might easily be multiplied. Beza's translation, obtundat, is happy,-that word being used exactly in this sense: thus Terence, Ne me obtundas hac de re sæpius. The assertion made by Chrysostom (De Laz., Conc. 3, c. 5), that it was pity which at length moved the judge, is totally without foundation, and opposed to the spirit of the parable.

*The endeavor to obtain help or redress by long-continued crying, and by mere force of importunity,-to extort by these means a boon or a right which is expected from no other motives, is quite in the spirit of the East. Thus it is mentioned in CHARDIN's Travels in Persia (I have not the book at hand to give the exact reference), that the peasants of the district, when their crops have failed, and they therefore desire a remission of the contributions imposed on their villages, or when they would appeal against some tyrannical governor, will assemble before the gates of the Schah's harem, and there continue howling and throwing dust in the air (Job ii. 12; Acts xxii. 23), and not be silenced or driven away, till he has sent out and demanded the cause, and thus given them at least an opportunity of stating their griefs; or sometimes they would beset him in the same manner, as he passed through the streets of the city, and thus seek to gain, and often succeed in gaining, their point, not from his love of justice, but from his desire to be freed from annoyance. See BURDER'S Orient. Illust., v. 2, p. 382.

to the comparatively short time during which she with her importunities beset the judge. The certainty that the elect will be heard rests not, however, on their mighty and assiduous crying as its ultimate ground, but on their election of God, which is, therefore, here brought especially into notice, and they called by this name of God's elect, rather than by any other of the many titles that might at first sight have seemed equally appropriate just as in Daniel (xii. 1) the deliverance of God's servants is traced up to the same cause; "At that time," that is, at the time of extremest distress, "thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book." Shall he not avenge them, asks the Lord," though he bear long with them?" or since that phrase is mostly used in Scripture, to set forth the relation of God to the sins of men,— his patience in giving them time and space for repentance, it would avoid perplexity if here another phrase were used, as for instance, "though he bear them long in hand?" or "though he delay with them long?" that is, long, as men count length. He may be slack in aveng

* 'Hμépas Kai vuкTds here = TáνTOTE of ver. 1. Our English "cry" is but a weak translation of the original Boâv. Tertullian translates it better by mugire; it is a mighty crying (Gen. iv. 10; John iii. 8, LXX.; Jam. v. 4) which is here attributed to the elect.

† Bengel (on Matt. xxiv. 22): Ubi supra robur fidelium ordinarium excedit vis tentationum, electio allegatur.

The words kal μaкpodvμŵv en avroîs have created much difficulty. Some refer aurois to the oppressors, on whom the vengeance is taken, and μакроðvμŵν is then used in its commonest sense; "Shall not God avenge his elect, though he bear long with their oppressors ?" yet against this Wolf says truly, Impiorum, de quibus ultio sit sumenda, non meminit Christus. But μakpоdvμéw need not be necessarily, differo ultionem, but merely differo, patienter expecto; see Heb. vi. 15; Jam. v. 7, 8; Job vii. 16; and especially Sirac. xxxv. 18 (in the Greek, xxxii. 18). Grotius seizes happily the point from which the two meanings diverge; he says: Est in hac voce dilationis significatio, quæ ut debitori prodest, ita gravis est ei qui vim patitur. Suicer, who has given rightly the meaning of the Lord's words (quamvis lentè ad vindicandum ipsos procedat), has (s. v. μакрodvμéw) a good and useful commentary on all the latter part of the parable. The proverb may be brought into comparison: Habet Deus suas horas, et moras.-Since the above was written, I have seen an essay by Hassler (Tubing. Zeitschr., 1832, Heft 3, pp. 117-125), wherein he finds fault with this explanation, which he denies to lie in the words, and makes καὶ μακροθυμῶν ἐπ' αὐτοῖς a description of God's patience with his suppliants, as contrasted with the fretful irritation of the judge under the solicitations of her that beset him; and the passage, in his view, might thus be translated, "Shall not God avenge his own elect, when also he is patient toward them?" shall he not avenge them, and so much the more while their reiterated prayers do not vex or weary him, as that widow's prayers vexed and wearied the judge-excite no impatience but only pity in his heart. Our Lord is then giving an additional motive why they should not faint in prayer. There may be a question, whether it is not the intention of the Vulgate to give this meaning, when it translates,

ing his people as "men count slackness," as compared with their impatience, and with their desire to be at once delivered from affliction; but, indeed," he will avenge them speedily," not leaving them a moment longer in the fire of affliction than is needful, delivering them from it the instant that patience has had its perfect work; so that there is, and there is meant to be, an apparent contradiction, while yet there is no real one, between ver. 7 and that which follows. The relief which to man's impatience seems to tarry long, indeed arrives speedily; it could not, according to the far-seeing and loving counsels of God, have arrived a moment earlier.* We may find a practical illustration of these words in the whole of our Lord's conduct with the family of Bethany (John xi.) in the depths into which he suffered them to be brought, before he arrived to aid; just as, to take a milder example, it was not till the fourth watch, in other words, until the last, that he came to aid his disciples laboring in vain against an adverse and perilous sea. 24, 25.)

(Matt. xiv.

The words with which the application of the parable concludes, "Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" are perplexing, for they appear at first sight to call in question the success of his whole mediatorial work. But though we have other grounds for believing that the Church will, at that last moment, be reduced to a very little band; yet here the point is not that there will be then few faithful or none, but that the faith even of the faithful will be' almost failing;-the distress will be so urgent, the darkness so thick, at the moment when at last the Son of man shall come forth for salvation and deliverance, that even the hearts of his elect people will have begun to fail them for fear. The lateness of the help Zechariah (xiv.

Et patientiam habebit in illis? and of Luther: Und sollte Geduld darüber haben? but darüber is ambiguous. At all events this interpretation has no claim to be a new light thrown upon the passage, as the writer supposes. Homberg (Parergo, p. 146) had long ago proposed it, and Wolf (Cure, in loc.) is inclined to fall in with it, who sums up the meaning thus; Patientia igitur Dei hic refertur ad auditionem precum electorum, quod oppositum judicis injusti exemplum probabile reddit, qui non patienter audiebat viduæ querelas.

* Unger (De Par. Jes. Nat., p. 136): Opponuntur sibi μaкpodvμŵr atque èr Taxe, illud fortasse ad hominem opinionem (ut sit, "si vel tardior videatur "), hoe ad sapiens Dei consilium referendum. Augustine (Enarr. in Ps. xci. 6) has some admirable remarks on the impatience of men, contrasted with the seeming tardiness of God.

We learn from Augustine that they were used by the Donatists, in reply to the Church, when she pleaded against them her numbers and her universality (Omnes enim hæretici in paucis et in parte sunt: Enarr. in Ps. xxxi 2). The Donatists answered (applying to their own day this prophecy concerning the last times), that the Lord himself had declared this fewness of the faithful; how he should hardly find faith on the earth.

1-5) describes, under the images of the old theocracy,-Jerusalem shall be already taken, the enemy shall be within its walls, spoiling and desolating, when the Lord shall come forth, his feet standing on the Mount of Olives, to fight against its enemies. All help will seem utterly to have failed, so that the Son of man at his coming will hardly find faith, or rather that faith, the faith which does not faint in prayer, with allusion to ver. 1, the faith which hopes against hope, and believes that light will break forth even when the darkness is thickest, and believing this continues to pray,*—he will hardly find that faith upon earth.

The verse stands parallel to, and may be explained by, those other words of our Lord's: "For the elect's sake," lest their faith also should fail, and so no flesh should be saved, "those days shall be shortened." χείν. 22.)

(Matt.

Theophylact observes here on faith, as the one condition of prayer, wάons προσευχῆς βάθρον καὶ κρηπὶς ἡ πίστις. And Augustine: Si fides deficit, oratio perit: quis enim orat quod non credit?

Vitringa's explanation of the parable (Erklär. d. Parab., p. 960, seq.) is curious. I should think it his own, and likely to remain so. The unjust judge represents the Roman emperors, the importunate widow the early Church, which sought evermore to plead its cause before them, and by their interference to be delivered from its oppressors. The emperors, after a long while, undertook its defence, ceasing themselves to persecute, and not suffering others any more to persecute it. Yet stranger than this is the view of Irenæus (Con. Hær., 1. 5. c. 25), and of Hippolytus, or whoever else is the author of the treatise De Antichristo, c. 37. The widow is the earthly Jerusalem, Israel after the flesh, which, forgetful of God, turns to the unjust judge, that is, to Antichrist, for he is the despiser alike of God and men (ver. 2), for aid against him whom she falsely believes her adversary, namely, Christ. They see an allusion to the last days and to the mighty part which, as they assume, the unbelieving Jews will have in the setting up of Antichrist's kingdom. (John v. 43; Dan. viii. 12.)

XXIX.

THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN.

LUKE Xviii. 9-14.

THE last parable was to teach us that prayer must be earnest and persevering; this that it must also be humble.* Some have supposed, as, for example, Vitringa, that here too we have set forth before us the rejection of the Jew and the acceptance of the Gentile; the Pharisee being the representative of that whole nation, which would have taken him as its most favorable specimen-the publican, of the Gentiles, with whom those despised collectors of customs were commonly classed; the one glorying in his merits, proudly extolling himself above the sinners of the Gentiles, but through this very pride and self-righteousness failing to become partaker of the righteousness of God; while the other, meekly acknowledging his vileness, and repenting of his sins, is justified freely by his grace. But the words with which the parable is introduced (ver. 9), and which must give the law to its interpretation, are opposed to this view. It was spoken "unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others; the aim of it was to

* Augustine finds a yet closer connection: Quia fides non est superborum sed humilium, præmissis subjecit parabolam de humilitate contra superbiam.

+ Erklär. d. Parab., p. 974. Augustine too (Enarr. in Ps. lxxiv. 8) thinks this application may be made, though it is not with him the primary: Hoc latins accipientes, intelligamus duos populos, Judæorum et Gentium: Judæorum populus Pharisæus ille, Gentium populus Publicanus ille. Judæorum populus jactabat merita sua, Gentium confidebatur peccata sua. So H. de Sto. Victore (Annott. in Luc.): Pharisæus, Judaicum populum significat, qui ex justificationis legibus extollit merita sua, et superbiendo recedit. Humiliatus publicanus, Gentilem significat: qui longè à Deo positus, peccata confitetur, et lamentando propinquat Deo, et exaltatur. Schleiermacher also observes, that it contradicts the idea of a parable, that the Pharisee should here mean a Pharisee, or the Pharisees generally; but this objection yields to the fact, that the term parable is of very wide signification throughout the New Testament.