when stript of its figurative dress, and clothed in the plain unequivocal language of St. Paul will be found to run thus; "The judgment of God is according to "truth. Who will render to every man 66 66 according to his deeds. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing "seek for glory, honor, and immortality, "eternal life. But unto them that do "not obey the truth, but obey unrighte 66 ousness, indignation, and wrath, tribu"lation and anguish on every soul of man "that doeth evil. But glory and honor, "and peace to every man that doeth "good. For there is no respect of per "sons with God." Rom. ii. 6. The parable before us furnishes a moral for the application bath of the desponding and confident Christian. The former may learn from it not to perplex himself with unnecessary doubts on the subject of his salvation. Whether he shall be in the number of God's chosen, or not, is a matwhich he may be enabled (so far at least as is necessary in this his state of trial,) to determine, in a great degree, for himself, by measuring his spiritual condition by the standard of the Gospel. The general tenor of Revelation will satisfy him that Christ" gave himself a ransom for all," and that it is his will (in the words of the Apostle)" that all men should be saved "and come to the knowledge of the truth." Consequently, whatever conclusions some few insulated passages of Scripture may appear to warrant, he may rest assured on those parts of the divine word, which are not obnoxious to doubtful interpretation, that no Christian professor will want a Saviour, who shall, through grace, be found in a fit condition to be saved by him. The confident Christian, on the other hand, should he not be totally blinded by prejudice, may learn from this parable, that there is such a thing as a false or illgrounded hope, and that there are deceitful expectations, which may betray a man into endless perdition. And though a sense of sin, without the hope of mercy, is despair, yet that the hope of mercy, without the penitent sense of sin, is presumption. The condemnation of which the confident Christian, who depends on the benefits of Christ's Christ's death, without attending to the conditions on which his interest in those benefits is to be secured, may read in the sentence pronounced on the guest that was unprovided with a wedding garment; "bind him hand and foot, and take him "away, and cast him into him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and "gnashing of teeth.". NOTE AD FINEM. THE learned Parkhurst has subjoined the following note to his explanation of the word "exλeyoual." "The "reader is particularly desired to observe, that I have "carefully set down every text of the New Testament, "wherein this important word exλeyoua, and its two de❝rivatives, exλɛxlos and exλoyn occur, because I am per"suaded that a diligent and close attention to the texts "themselves, together with their respective contexts, and a "comparison of these with similar passages of the Old "Testament will be the most effectual, if not the only ne "thod of determining or shortening certain modern con"troversies, and of leading the sincere and impartial "Christian into the real mind of the Spirit of God with "regard to those contested points. And I must plainly "profess, that though I perused some of the most eminent "human writers on both sides, yet, till I took the method "here earnestly recommended, I could never form any "settled judgment, nor obtain any solid satisfaction in "these awful, interesting, and as they have been managed, "perplexing subjects." The important subject which I have attempted to bring within the compass of the preceding Discourse, the reader will find more fully and compleatly handled in a late publication, entitled, “A Refutation of Calvinism,” (a work which, I conceive, every young divine in parti. cular, would do well to have at hand,) the production of the able pen of a very excellent and highly distinguished prelate of our Church; who, I am sorry to say, has lately been most disrespectfully treated by a clergyman, from whom better things might have been expected. |