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pardoning God, and there thou shalt have a new heart-new joys -new friends-new hopes, and there thou shalt begin a new life and a new song.' As soon as the Saviour appeared, repentance, and faith, and a holy life, were proclaimed abroad as the terms of salvation, and as the only terms on which man could be restored to the favour of God; and in the time of Paul, they had been explained and enlarged upon, and urged until they had become of all duties the most obvious.

Again; the gospel had disclosed the highest and most powerful motives to obedience. It had most unequivocally announced to man the momentous truth, that he is to exist for ever. This truth was indeed known before the time of Christ. David in view of the grave could say-"My flesh shall rest in hope, thou wilt not leave me in the grave." But, enlightened as he was, and gifted as he was with the inspirations of God, how indefinite must have been his views of a future state, compared with those of the humblest disciple of Him who is the resurrection and the life. "I know," said Martha, standing by the tomb of her brother, "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day." She had learned this of Jesus. He had every where declared, the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth. He had brought life and immortality to light; revealed clearly an endless state of being beyond this transient one; taught the world that this is a state of trial, that of everlasting retribution. And now man went forth to act no longer as the insect of a summer's day, but as an immortal, accountable being, with the eyes of heaven upon him, and the amazing realities of eternity before him; now he was called upon to live for eternity, to shape all his thoughts, and feelings, and

plans for eternity, called upon by the most commanding considerations which could be addressed to his hopes or his fears. On one hand, he saw the faithful, inheriting the promises-those who had here fought a good fight, and kept the faith, and overcome the world, exchanging their armour for the robes and the crowns of victory, and coming to mount Zion with songs and with everlasting joy upon their heads; and on the other hand, he saw the impenitent those who had here refused to obey the gospel, sinking from those heights of glory into the world of eternal night, there to wail through years of never ending sorrow.

But this was not all. The gospel had brought another, and a very different class of motives to bear -motives without which the revelations of immortality, grand and overpowering as they are, could never have answered the purposes of human salvation. Man was lost, and how was man to be restored? his mind was enmity against his Maker, and how was this enmity to be slain? he had cast away the love of God, and how was this love to be enthroned again in his dark and rebellious bosom? Could the disclosure of hell do it? This would only stir up his fears, and blow his opposition into sevenfold rage. Could an act of forgiveness from God do it? But such an act could not be granted without sacrificing the principles of his justice and the rights of his throne. Here then was a barrier which prevented the mercy of God from flowing down to this world, and how was this barrier to be taken away? We are told that Jesus beheld the sinner lying in his blood, and pitied him; that he came down from his throne and dwelt among us, and bare our sins in his own body on the tree; thus magnifying the law which had been trampled upon, and all this that he might make such an exhibition of the attributes of God as would charm the human heart back to love and obedience-all this that the sinner might look up to God and behold him in the undiminished lustre of all his perfections, reconciling the world to himself; that the ungrateful sinner might look to the throne of the Most High, and behold there mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, met together, and forming a spectacle so inviting, so moving, that as he gazed upon it, love might spring up, where all was before rebelliousness, and the beauties of holiness dawn where all was before darkness and disorder. O the length and breadth of the love of Christ which passeth knowledge!

Such were the motives to repentance which had been disclosed to those who lived in the time of the apostle. I trust you are now prepared to see the force of his appeal, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth-much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven."

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I have been speaking of what took place in ages that are past. But this argument admits of a closer application. It is eighteen hundred years since Paul and the men of his generation went into eternity; and all this time the evidences of Christianity have been multiplying, and light has been breaking in from every quarter on the path of man's duty. With what an emphasis then can I on this age ask, How shall we escape? It is true we have not seen with our own eyes the wonderful facts recorded in the New Testament; nor is it probable that all those whom the apostle addressed had seen them-those who had, could indeed rely on the testimony of their senses; whereas we must rely upon the testimony of others; and for this reason, the

evidence may come to our minds in a shape less vivid, less impressive perhaps, but no less certain. You may never have seen with your own eyes George Washington, but can you doubt whether such a man has existed? No more can you doubt as to the truth of the facts recorded in the gospel history.

But there has been, in fact, a great increase of evidence since the time of the apostles, which the men of that age could not, from the nature of the case, possess. An objector then might have said, This religion after all may be a mere imposition, and though we cannot discover its falsity, yet it may be discovered by future investigation. But no man can make this objection now: for I ask, what means the fact that this religion has stood for eighteen centuries; and that too when its evidences have been sifted again and again, by friends and by foes; when thousands in every age have been arrayed against it-thousands who have ransacked earth and skies in search of means to destroy it, and who have all along been exhausting upon it all the sources of ridicule, and argument, and eloquence? What means the fact that this religion has survived -nay, that it has gathered fresh strength and new glory from every attack of its enemies; and this too when it has been armed with no sword, no weapon of terror? There is now but one supposition to be made, and that is the supposition of its truth.

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We are informed that in an assembly which had come together in Jerusalem, to decide on the question whether Peter and his companions should be put to death, a man, by the name of Gamaliel, thus addressed them. " I say unto you, refrain from these men; for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought, but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it." Could the members of that assembly now rise from their graves, and behold this religion rising, and spreading, and filling the earth with its glory, what would they think?-what would they say?

I might also dwell on the fulfilment of prophecies. I might show how every thing has since happened as the Saviour foretold it; but on this topic I need only refer to the effects of his gospel on the world. He declared that just in proportion as his religion should be loved and practised, men would be made holy and happy, and earth would put on the aspect of heaven. The men of that day heard this declaration, but it was reserved for future generations to see it fully verified. We know that wherever this gospel has been heartily embraced, there the depraved children of Adam have been assimilated to angels and to God. We know that since Christ ascended on high, an innumerable company have embraced his religion, and have found it every way adapted to their desires as immortal beings, to their characters as perishing sinners, and to their wants as strangers in this land of sorrow. We know that they have been supported by its consolations, living and dying; and that while animated by its hopes, they could smile at affliction-they could smile at the tomb. We know that it has been their song in this house of their pilgrimage, and their triumph in their last agonies.Here again, a flood of evidence comes pouring down upon us, which in the days of the apostle had only begun to accumulate.Consider too that human knowledge of every kind has been rapidly advancing, and thus, by strengthening the powers and extending the views of the mind, has prepared it to see more clearly the evidences of Christianity, and to understand more fully its own obligations and duties. Consider too

our superior privileges as members of a Christian community. Those whom the apostles addressed had grown up either Jews or pagans, and of course had become confirmed in all the habits of thinking and feeling peculiar to those systems. But how different is the case with us! The first breath we drew was in a Christian land-a land where the tidings of redemption were brought to us in our cradles, where the story a Saviour's love is associated with our earliest remembrances, where the first language that was taught our infant lips was perhaps that of a prayer to our Father in heaven, where the first music that saluted our ears was perhaps that of a song of Zion, where we have been surrounded with shining examples of pietymen walking with God and ripening for glory, a land where the special influences of heaven have been descending, where God has been present by his gracious visitations, where hills and valleys have echoed with the praises of ransomed sinners, where we have seen all about us, friends and acquaintance, pressing into the kingdom, and where we have been urged by all the entreaties which friendship and affection and the word of God could suggest to lay hold of the same everlasting blessings.

What will become of us, if we die without holiness? If we are still in a state of impenitence, and if our sins are to be estimated by the light we have resisted, what an awful amount of guilt have we contracted, and what a dark and mighty accumulation of wrath has gathered over us! Sinners above all who have lived and died in this sinning earth-guilty above all the guilty generations who have ever passed through this land of probation to the bar of God-destined soon, unless we flee to the blood of sprinkling, to behold them all rising up in judgment and condemning us-O what will become of us if we die in our sins? Better, far better for us, had our lot been cast in the shadow of death; nay better for us had we never been born. The time will be, when we shall call for death, but he will not come; and then we shall curse the day of our birth, and say of it, "Let that day be darkness; let not God regard it from above; let not the light shine upon it; let a cloud dwell upon it, and the blackness of night terrify it." How shall we escape? Those whoabusedtheir privilegeseighteen centuries ago, escaped not; nay, those who lived hundreds of years before the day-spring from on high visited our world, and who abused the privileges they then enjoyed, escaped not. Could we look into the eternal prison, we should find them all there;-and there we must go if we die in our sins, and " if there be in that world of despair a place of intenser darkness, where the wrath of the Almighty glows with augmented fury, in that place we must dwell." If there be groans there, which swell above the rest by their louder tones of agony; such groans must escape from these bosoms. Have you never trembled, my impenitent friends, at the thought of going from this land of light-this gate of heaven, to that place of woe, and of carrying with you to that place a remembrance of your sabbaths of the invitations of redeeming love-of the entreaties of friends, and their prayers, and their tears in your behalf? Why then will you take another step in that downward course? why will you, when Jesus stands ready to welcome you to his arms, to blot out your sins, and to make your exalted privileges the means of raising you to higher seats in glory? Come then, ye ruined souls, ye who have abused the richest blessings which heaven has yet lavished on ruined man, come with all your guilt, and cast yourselves on the mercy of God. Come now

in this day of mercy. To-morrow may be a day of darkness-a day of wrath. Refuse not Him that speaketh-Him that speaketh to you now from his word-from heaven-from hell.

To the Editor of the Christian Spectator.

I HAVE met with a sermon, lately preached at the South, on the doctrine of the saints' perseverance. It contains much excellent matter, and will no doubt produce conviction in unprejudiced minds. But there is an argument against the doctrine in question, frequently drawn from the parable of the ten virgins, which the preacher thought it incumbent on him to refute; and this he does in the following manner.

"That the foolish virgins were not believers, appears, 1st; From the very title that is given them. Foolish, in the language of scripture, is the same as wicked. A foolish virgin then, is a wicked virgin, or an ungodly professor. 2dly; But they had no oil in their lamps [vessels). What is the lamp of a professor? It is his profession, or badge of discipleship. What is the oil that feeds the lamp? It is vital piety, or the renovating and sanctifying influence of the Spirit. But these foolish virgins had no oil in their lamps. Then they had no piety; consequently, could not have been believers. But you will ask why it was said that their lamps were gone out; must they not once have burnt and given light? Certainly; but a lamp may burn brightly for a short time without any oil. If the wick be lighted, there will be a very bright temporary blaze,-brighter, perhaps, while it lasts than if there were oil in the lamp. This very elegantly represents hypocritical professors. They seem, for time, to be all zeal, all love, all

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praise, all fire, and as if they would immediately take heaven by violence; but soon return, &c."

This is ingenious, and certainly as conclusive as the reasoning it opposes: it meets the objector in his own fashion. But were it not better to show the simple meaning of the parable, instead of meeting one unsound argument with another equally unsound.

As to this allegorizing the scriptures, it would seem that the abuses to which it is liable must be obvious from a single specimen; and that it could gain credit only with the simple and unlearned. But this is far from having been the case either in ancient or modern times. Even so learned a man-I do not say so good a critic-as Dr. Adam Clarke, finds in the parable of the ten virgins the very same evidence that saints "fall from grace" which our preacher so ingeniously sets aside in the foregoìng quotation. If the reader will look into his commentary he will there learn that, virgins denote the purity of the Christian doctrine and character, that bridegroom denotes Jesus Christ, -feast, the blessedness of his kingdom, -wise and foolish virgins, those who truly enjoy and those who only profess the purity and holiness of Christ's religion, oil, the grace and salvation of God,'-vessel, the heart, in which the oil is contained,-lamp, the profession of enjoying the burning and shining light of the gospel of Christ, going forth, the whole of their sojourning upon earth.' Of course, when he comes to the words, our lamps are gone out, Dr. C. concludes, that those who hold to the perseverance of the saints, are in a palpable error. then," he says, " it is evident that that they were once lighted. They had once hearts illuminated, &c."

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It is not much to be wondered at that Dr. Clarke, as a critic, sometimes quarrels with his own principles. Speaking of Samson's be

ing made a type of Christ, of which he disapproves, he takes occasion to remark that "by a fruitful imagination, and the torture of words and facts, we may force resemblances every where." Of the justness of this remark, he, as we have seen, has just given us a proof from his own commentary.

Perhaps no part of the scriptures has been more abused by false interpretation than the parables, and no parable more than this. On a future occasion I may attempt an exposition of it; and in the mean time, since I have made a beginning, suffer me to add a few more specimens of exegesis similar to those above.

Origen, who was the father of mystical interpretation, taught that the scriptures contained three senses, the literal, the allegorical, and the spiritual, the last being a sense still more recondite than the allegorical. He carried his system to an extreme length, spiritualizing every thing, even to the minute parts of the victim offered at the altar. Subsequent fathers followed him, though, perhaps, with less extravagance. Examples every where might be collected from their works: but a few will suffice.

Let us hear then the ancients.The two women who came to Solomon, contending for the living child, (1 Kings iii. 16,) as Jerom supposes, represent the synagogue of the Jews and the church of Christ, contending about the child, Jesus. Augustine makes them signify the Catholic church and the Arian and other heresies, which divide Christ in two. Ambrose makes them denote faith and temptation.

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. Ps. xix. 2. - According to ancient exegesis, the first mentioned day means Christ, and the second, divided into twelve hours, denotes the twelve apostles. This interpretation is wonderfully confirmed

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