opening observation suggests that what is to come will be a sustained allegory. The husbandmen of the parable are ministers of the gospel; the seed they bear is the Word of God; the ground they till is the hearts of their hearers; and their work is to sow the seed of grace. As he begins with ministers in the doctrinal part of the sermon, so he begins with them in the Improvement, saying that “ministers should be faithful in their work, and leave the event with God.” The ground, the human heart, is