the church of Christ, and make a similar application of the Old Testament denunciations of wrath against what we call the spiritual or mystical Babylon, or Edom, or Moab. The circumstances of the times in which the prophets lived, supplied a language, in the use of which, as applicable to those times and circumstances, the Holy Ghost overruled the mouths of the prophets to speak of greater things than those. Thus, in the opening of the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah, the language is swelled far beyond the description of any literal victory which the Jews ever gained, under any of their leaders, over Edom or Babylon.

"Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this, that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? -I, that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat ?-I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me: for, I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment; for the day vengeance is in mine heart, and the of my redeemed is come." This passage is usually applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, at his first coming to make an atonement for sin; but will the language bear such an application? At that time, our Lord shed his own blood only. Here he is

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described as stained with the blood of his enemies. At that time, he manifested his loving kindness and tender mercy towards his enemies, making intercession for them even in the agonies of death. Here he is described as treading them down in his anger, and trampling them in his fury. At that time, peace, and love, and free forgiveness, were in his heart towards the vilest of sinners, evidenced in his reception of the expiring thief. Here he is described as having the day of vengeance in his heart. When, therefore, it is maintained that for their blood we should read his blood; that for anger and fury, we should read loving-kindness and tender mercy; and that for vengeance, we should read free forgiveness, and undeserved love-then, it may also be maintained, that the passage before us applies to the first coming of our Lord in his humiliation unto death. But, until these errata, in the language of Isaiah, shall be pointed out on sufficient authority to alter the text, we must espouse the contrary opinion, and maintain, that the passage before us applies to a very different coming of our Lord, at a period predicted by himself, when he shall say concerning those enemies of his, who would not have him to reign over them, "bring them forth, and slay them before me!" (Luke xix. 15-27.)

Thus also, in Jeremiah 1. and li. throughout, the great idolatrous apostacy of the times of the Gentiles, is denounced by the same name of Babylon,

and with the same details of vengeance which are afterwards reiterated by the apostle John, long after the literal Babylon had ceased to exist. Compare Rev. xviii. with Jer. 1. and li. On this theme of dreadful judgments to be inflicted upon the enemies of God, at the close of this dispensation, when the Jewish nation shall be restored, and the saints gloriously saved, the prophets are peculiarly full and explicit. Nothing, indeed, can be more clear, than that the times of the Gentiles will end in a great separation. We have further proof

In the parables of our Lord.-In the parable of the Tares and the Wheat, which is written and expounded in Matt. xiii. Jesus describes the mixture of the children of the kingdom, and the children of the wicked one, as continuing all along till the harvest; which harvest is expounded to mean the end, not of the material world Toυ коoμov, but of this dispensation or age, του αιώνος τούτου, and then the separation-the tares bound in bundles to be burned, and the wheat gathered into the barn.

In like manner, in the parable of the net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; which, when it was full, they drew to the shore, and sat down and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away: so shall it be at the end of the world, (here again the expression is avoc, the age, or dispensation,) the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and

shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

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So also in the parable of the ten Virgins, we find a separation at the end of the dispensation, or, in other words, at the coming of the Son of Man. “Five of them were wise, and five were foolish ;" they all slumbered and slept ;""the bridegroom came; the wise went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut." “Afterwards, came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us; but he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not." This is even more alarming than the former: because this applies to the state of the professing church in Christendom, as distinguished from the nations generally; and it shows us that the true remnant, who enter into the joy of their Lord, will fall short, not only of the world commonly so called, but also of the seemingly religious world.

My brethren, take heed unto yourselves; in Jesus Christ there is salvation for you; and nowhere else: his blood cleanseth from all sin, and nothing else can cleanse from any sin; his righteousness justifieth from all things, and nothing else can justify from any thing; he is a complete Saviour, and there is no Saviour but he; a just God and a Saviour there is none else. Depend on him, venture on him, yea, venture wholly without hesitation or reserve, counting all your own best righteousness but as dross and dung, that you may win Jesus

Christ, and be found in Jesus Christ.

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And now,

brethren, I say unto you, Watch, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."

Here it is objected, that the parable of the Leaven gives a different view of this subject; and represents the assimilating process of the gospel as continuing, till the whole is leavened. In reply to which I observe, that the quantity of meal in which the leaven is described as being hid, is a definite and small quantity-three measures: while the field in which the tares are described, is indefinitely the world, o koσμos; which circumstance has induced commentators to apply the one parable to the mixed aspect of the gospel kingdom, as set up in the world; the other, to the progressively sanctifying nature of it, as it is set up in the heart of the individual. In adopting this distinction, therefore, we are not framing an ingenious device, to support our scheme, but simply following Mr. Scott and others, in the solution of a difficulty which has been felt, wholly independent of the subject now before us, and in order to avoid making the parables contradict one another; and, it is obvious, that this distinction wholly removes that objection to our

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See Scott on Matt. xiii. 33. If this distinction be correct, then in the three measures of meal, there may, perhaps, be an allusion to the three component parts of each individual, as enumerated by the apostle, 1 Thess. v. 23,