cessary to take into view the whole of the 15th and 16th chapters. It is also necessary that we enter on this investigation, with an impression of mind, that Jesus Christ was capable of delivering a discourse, the several parts of which would harmonize, and one part assist in giving the right sense of another.

After the divine teacher had in the two first parables in the 15th chapter, vindicated the doctrine of his grace, and defended the propriety of his receiving sinners and eating with them, he varied the third parable, so as to introduce one more character than was represented in the two former.

This character was the elder brother, who was angry at the return of the prodigal, and the kind reception with which he was welcomed of his father. By this elder brother, the religious Jews, who were angry at the kind treatment which sinners received from Christ, were represented. And their rejecting the gospel, was signified by the elder brother's refusing to go into the house, and join in the feast and joy of the happy occasion.

In the parable of the unjust steward, which begins the 16th chapter, the same religious Jews are represented by a steward who is accused of unfaithfulness, for which he is to be turned out of his office. As the steward was commended for making provision for the future, by a wise use of his present opportunity, these religious Jews were admonished to make such use of their privileges as would introduce them into the christian faith and church. See the application of the parable. "And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations." Jesus then proceeds to remark, that if they were not faithful in that which was least, they would not be in much; and if they were not faithful in the religion of the law, that of the gospel, which was the true riches, would not be given them, though these true riches were not their own.

:

The Pharisees were provoked at these rebukes and admonitions, and they derided him who reproved them. He then dealt plainly with his religious enemies, and said, "Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed among men, is abomination in the sight of God." Continuing his subject, Jesus adds, "The law and the prophets were until John since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the law to fail." Here we come to the parable concerning adultery, by which is shown that the law must be fuifilled, and not put away, as a man puts away his wife unlawfully, and marries to another. On the other hand, it is signified, that as Jesus is the end of the law for righteousness, and had come to close the first dispensation, and to introduce the gospel, the Jews in rejecting the gospel, and living in the law covenant, committed adultery, as would a man who should marry a woman who had been put away from her husband.

The next words are, "There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen," &c. Here a parable is introduced, by which is represented the adultery which the religious Jews committed in remaining in the law covenant, and refusing to enter into the gospel church.

By the rich man the high priest might be particularly intended, as a representative of the Jews in general. In the 28th of Exodus we have an account of this garment of purple and fine linen, which Moses was commanded to prepare for Aaron, the first high priest.

By the beggar, the Gentile is represented as excluded from the privileges which God's covenant people enjoyed. The death of Lazarus consisted in his being absolved from all his idolatrous relig ion; and by his being carried by angels into Abraham's bosom, is represented the conversion of the

Gentiles to Abraham's faith, by the preaching of the Apostles. The rich man died a political death. His dispensation ceases. He now sees fulfilled the words of Christ, Luke xiii, 28, 29. “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you your selves thrust out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God." And here let us add, the next verse for our instruction. “And behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.

In this wretched situation, this representative of the house of Israel sees Abraham afar off, with the Gentile in his favour, and makes his request for mercy. But though Abraham calls him son, he reminds him of his former situation, in which he was favoured with the divine oracles, while the Gentiles could get nothing but a few crumbs which their travelling philosophers picked up for them, of the religion of the patriarchs, and of the law. These philosophers are represented by dogs who icked the sores of the beggar-Endeavouring to molify and heal the vices of heathenism, with the moral maxims which they communicated from their tongues. "Now he is comforted, and thou art tormented." You Jews have had a divine revelation, have been blessed of God for a long time, while the poor Gentiles had no hope, and were without God in the world; but now the divine wisdom has seen fit to visit the Gentiles with the gospel, while you are excluded. And lest the Gentile believers should have access with the waters of the gospel to you, or you should come into the christian faith, "there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot : neither can they pass to us that would come from thence."

In the next place, this representative of the Jews requests that Lazarus may be sent to his five

brethren who were in his father's house, that he might testify unto them, that they might not come into this unhappy situation. But Abraham replies, "they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them ;" and assures them that if they will not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one went unto them from the dead. These five brethren were that part of the house of Israel which was represented by five foolish virgins in the 25th of Matthew, who not having the oil of divine knowledge with the rites of the law, were left in darkness, when the glorious bridegroom entered, with his Gentile bride, into the gospel covenant and dispensation.

On the subject of this gulf, it may be proper to be somewhat particular. The use of it we have already seen; which is to prevent those who would go from Abraham's bosom to the rich man; and those who would go from the place of the rich man to Abraham's bosom. By these things we are instructed that the Gentile Christian would go to the unbelieving Jews with the gospel, if it were possible, and that the unbelieving Jews have at all times been desirous of entering into favour with Abraham their father. But why should such a gulf be fixed? And what are the purposes of divine wisdom in this thing? These queries are solved in the, 11th chapter to the Romans, where St. Paul has treated the subject in a most luminous manner. - He first argues the necessity of the Jews' unbelief, for the purpose of granting favour to the Gentiles. And on the other hand, he argues that through the mercy which the Gentiles obtain through the fall of the Jews, the Jews shall at last obtain mercy.See verses 30, 31, 32. "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all."

.1

Will any inquire, how the Gentiles obtained mercy through the unbelief of the Jew? Then let them consider, that if Jews had not apostatized from the true religion, but had believed in the Saviour when he came, they never would have fulfilled the prophecies concerning him, by rejecting him, condemning him, and by putting him to death. And if these prophecies concerning the treatment which Christ should receive from his countrymen, had not been fulfilled, the Gentiles could never have been converted to the gospel. But when the Gentiles heard the gospel preached by the apostles, witnessed by the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning Jesus, the door of faith was properly opened to them; and they saw the light which God gave for “salvation unto the ends of the earth."

That the wisdom of God, which is without partiality, might appear to have the whole direction of these vast affairs, those blinded Jews, through whose fall this great salvation came to the Gentiles, are to obtain mercy at last by the means of the Gentile church. Here we see the sense of our Saviour's words before noticed: "And behold there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last." The apostle in the 11th of Romans, seems desirous that his Gentile brethren should understand this mystery, and says, verses 25, 26, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, (lest ye should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."

In this view of our subject, the pertinence of the words of Abraham appears, in which he suggested to the rich man, that equal favours were distributed between him and Lazarus. And indeed we see no reason why equal favours should not be granted to the two; for there is not a word in the hole parable, that intimates that one was inore