ments. See Isa. x: 33, 34. Jer. xlvi: 22, 23. Eze. xxxi: 1, 3, 10—12. As cutting down and burning trees represents a national judgment, your ar gument drawn from the impossibility of a burned tree returning to its verdure, has no force. I pretend not that the Jewish nation will return to its former state.

3. Matt. v: 13. (Luke xiv: 34, 35.) Here you assume that to be trodden under foot of men, represents endless suffering. But what is there in the figure which justifies such an assumption? Theophylact says, it signifies to be despised. Macknight explains it thus: "If ye, whose business it is to reform mankind, be wicked yourselves, ye cannot be reclaimed, but will be the most useless and contemptible of men." The words were addressed by our Lord to his disciples, who were the light of the world, but if they had lost their light, or become like unsavory salt, they would be cast out of the church. Nothing is said of another world. This is certain. How then can

it prove endless misery?

4. Matt. xii. 43-45. (Luke xi. 24-26.) Here you assume that the state of the man with seven spirits was his final state. But the text says nothing of this. That represents him in two states-one with one evil spirit-the other with seven. When it says the last state of that man is worse than the first, it means, his state with seven evil spirits, is worse than with one. No allusion is made to death or eternity. This man was a figure of the Jewish nation. Grotius, I believe has given the sense of the text in the following words:

'Christ appears to have had reference to the character of the Jewish people, at the two pe

riods of their captivity in Babylon, and their destruction by Titus. Before their captivity, the people were exceedingly wicked, as may be seen in the Prophets; during their exile many began to reform, and under a superintending Providence, returned to their native land. But in the days of the Asmoneans, having again plunged into excessive wickedness, they added to their other crimes, a contempt of the Messiah, who came to them with a message of mercy, and exercising miraculous power. Having done this, they were abandoned by God, and became the most wicked of all men, as Josephus has described them in his history of their last days.' Annot. in loc.

5. Matt. xiii. 47. Here you assume, that the end of the world (aion) is the end of the material universe. By turning to Matt. xxiv. we shall see the falsity of this. There the disciples ask what shall be the sign of the end of the world (aion)? In answer to this, Jesus enumerates several signs, but says the end is not yet. He then mentions other signs, and says after these, the end (end of the world or age) shall come. In the same chapter he teaches, that that generation should not pass away, till all these things were fulfilled. The parable then, represents the effects of the Gospel before, and the separation which took place at, the destruction of Jerusalem. Furnace of fire-weeping and gnashing of teeth, are figures to represent the doom of the Jews. This is evident from the time to which the text refers, and from the use of the figures.

This explanation accords with the opinion of Dr. Clarke. He says: "It is probable, that this parable in its primary meaning, refers to the

Jewish state, and that when Christ should come to judge and destroy them by the Roman power, the genuine followers of Christ should escape, and the rest be overwhelmed in the general destruction. See chap. xxiv. 30."

6. Matt. xiii. 36-43. Here you assume, as in the previous text, that the end of the world, (aion) (the time of the harvest) is the end of the universe. The arguments adduced on that are equally applicable to this. It is only necessary therefore to consider the figures here used-furnace, weeping and gnashing of teeth. In Isai. xxxi. 9, we read that God's fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem. See also Ezek. xxii. 18, 20, 22. From these references, we see, that furnace is used in the Old Testament, to signify sore, temporal calamities. Now as our Lord spoke to Jews, who were familiar with the Old Testament, is it not reasonable to suppose, that he used it in the same sense, in which it there occurs? And if he did not, would he not have mislead, rather than instructed his hearers? Add to this the fact, that they were to be cast into this furnace at the end of the age or Jewish polity, and there can be no doubt of its having a temporal signification.

Dr. Clarke says, the figure "weeping_and gnashing of teeth" was borrowed from the Jewish method of celebrating nuptial festivals, which took place at night, and in houses splendidly illuminated by lamps, torches and candles. Those excluded, he says, are represented as in outer darkness, and the shame to which they were exposed, and the cold which they suffered, are expressed by wailing, weeping and gnashing of

teeth. How forcibly then, do those figures represent the punishment of apostate christians. They were shut out from the kingdom; they were in outer darkness; they ceased to enjoy gospel privileges, the kingdom of heaven was taken from them. Hence their suffering and shame are forcibly expressed by wailing, weeping and gnashing the teeth. This application is strengthened by the fact, that the same figures are used in Matt. xxiv. 51, which is admitted to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem. This is the opinion of Pearce, Cappe and Hammond.

Your remark that the end of the world, cannot mean the end of the Jewish age, because tares are still among the wheat, will have no weight, when it is considered, that the good seed represented christians, and the tares apostates, those which were once a good seed.

The parable had a particular application to the end of the Jewish age: "So shall it be at the end of this world," (aion) which Pearce, Cappe and Clarke say, means the Jewish age. Your difficulty therefore, about the impossibility of tares becoming wheat, after being burned, is altogether imaginary, and founded on a false application of the text.

3. Matt. xxv. 1-12. Here you assume that the coming of the bridegroom represents Christ's coming to judgment at the last day. This is refuted, 1. By the commencement of the parable: Then shall the kingdom, &c. This adverb must refer to the time of which Christ had been speaking in the xxiv. chap. which was his coming to destroy the Jews. 2. It was a representation of the church at Christ's coming, which in this dis

course, he says, should be in that age. 3. Christ commands the disciples to watch, because they knew not when he would come. He gave the same commands in chap. xxiv. where he confines his coming to that age. 4. This parable was a part of our Lord's answer to the disciples' question, when he should come, and in this answer, he declares it should be in that age.

Pearce. Ver 1. 'Then, i, e., at that time, and under those circumstances. This shows, that Jesus, in this chapter, is speaking on the same subject as in the foregoing one, viz. what was to happen at the destruction of the Jewish state. See Com. on ver. 13.'

Ver. 1. 'Rather, wherein the Son of man is to come. This plainly shows, that what was said before in this chapter relates to the destruction of the Jewish state, expressed by the Son of man's coming, as in chap. xvi. 27, 28. Com. in loc.

8. Matt. xxv. 14-30. (Luke xix: 11-27.) This parable, following that of the ten virgins and being a part of the same discourse, unquestionably refers to the same event. The arguments therefore, by which we have proved that the parable of the ten virgins, refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, we prove that this refers to the same time. Whitby, an orthodox writer, explains it thus: "The parable here, as it respects our Lord Christ going into a far country to receive a kingdom, and return again, either respects his going to heaven to sit down at the right hand of God in majesty and glory, and so take possession of his mediatory kingdom, and then return to punish the unbelieving and obdurate Jews; or going by his apostles and disciples to erect a kingdom among the Gentiles, and then coming,