Excerpt from An Exposition of the Parables, Vol. 4 of 5: And of Other Parts of the Gospels It may be quite clear from these descriptions, that the villicus had great powers intrusted to him, in his proper department and for his proper jurisdiction that he represented his master, and exercised his authority, in taking care of his property, looking after his servants, inspecting the conduct of each, punishing or rewarding as he saw fit, disposing of the produce of their la bour, supplying their necessary wants, taking care of them when ill, keeping them to their duty when well, being always with them, both at home and abroad, instructing and teaching them when they required it, and encouraging them by his ex ample as much as by his precepts. But it is equally clear that all this was done in the management of his master's property in the country only, and for the superintendence of the various de scriptions of persons employed on a farm. Before we can ob tain a just idea of the oixovo'pos in the two parables of our Lord, we must conceive the notion of a servant placed in the same de legated capacity over all his master's property, whether in the town, or in the country; and in the exercise of his commission, not confined to one place, or to one description of services, re quiring power and confidence, more than to another. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.