And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Ver. 4. And when he sowed, some seed, &c.] The word is a seed of immortality. For, 1. As seeds are small things, yet produce great substances, as an acorn an oak, &c., so by the foolishness of preaching souls are saved, like as by blowing of rams' horns the walls of Jericho were subverted. 2. As the seed must be harrowed into the earth, so must the word be hid in the heart, ere it fructify. 3. As the seedsman cannot make a harvest without the influence of heaven; so, let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stump (as that martyr expressed it), preach and pray never so much, men will on in their sins, unless God give the blessing: Paul may plant, &c. a 4. As good seed if not cast into good ground yields no harvest; so the word preached, if not received into good and honest hearts, proves ineffectual. The Pharisees were not a button the better for all those heart piercing sermons of our Saviour, nay, much the worse. 5. As the harvest is potentially in the seed, so is eternal life in the word preached,Romans 1:16. As the rain from heaven hath a fatness with it, and a special influence more than other standing waters, so there is not the like life in other ordinances as in preaching. None to that, as David said of Goliath's sword.
a Mr Bradford, Serm. of Rep. Meum est docere, vestrum auscultare, Dei perficere. It is for me to teach, you to hear, and God to perform. Cyril.