of the law from them, in respect to dispensation, is meant by the steward's being turned out of his stewardship.

5th. Christ shows, that, in natural things, an unjust steward, who provided for himself, by bestowing his lord's property on his debtors, did more wisely than the Jews, particularly the pharisees, whom he calls the children of light, did in things of God and religion: as they were about to be turned out of their stewardship, in respect to the law, and ordinances thereof, and yet rejected their Messiah and his gospel, the only means of their future safety and enjoyment.

6th. Christ represents the legal dispensation and the works thereof, by the mammon of unrighteousness; showing that the ritual righteousness of the law stood in comparison with that of the gospel of everlasting life, as things temporal, to things eternal. And under this representation, he exhorts the people to make unto themselves. friends, by improving the law and its ordinances, so as to introduce themselves, as in the case of the wise virgins, to the everlasting habitation of the bridegroom..

7th. If they were perverse enough to make void the law, by adopting traditions contrary thereto; which is meant by their being unjust in that which was least, and unfaithful in the unrighteous mammon, and in the things of another, they would not be disposed to make any better use of the doctrine of the gospel and the privileges thereof, but would, in violation of its divine purity, substitute their own mysterious traditions, giving them the sanction of divine authority, and make the gospel a trade, as they had made the law, (as many people have

this subject as represented by St. Paul to the Galatians, iii. 7, 8, 9. "Know ye, therefore, that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." See verse 14. "That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith. It is said, in the parable, that the rich man saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Very far indeed! The moral distance between the state in which we have seen the Jewish church, and that in which we have seen the Gentile church of believing christians, is very great, and astonishingly different. The state of the former is that of wretchedness in the extreme, while that of the latter is in the same ratio glorious.

It remains that we show, as was proposed,

5th. That the state of the high priests, and that part of Israel who were broken off through unbelief, ought not to be considered as hopeless. This rich man has been generally considered as some individual person, known to our Saviour, who was very covetous and unfeeling in his life time, who literally died and went to a state of misery in a future world, from which misery there never can be any deliverance. This account is also made general use of to prove the common doctrine of the endless miseries of the wicked who die without faith in Christ. It is hoped, however, that the notes, together with the foregoing illustration, set this matter in a very different light to the un presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." It is evident that the general thread of discourse is continued, which has for its subject the putting away of the law, and the introduction of the gospel, and the consequences arising to the Jews on their rejecting the Saviour, agreeable to which the following notes are written":

1st. As a man's putting away his wife and marrying another, was considered adultery; so to put away the law dispensation, and marry to the gospel, before the law was every tittle fulfilled, blending law and gospel, in point of dispensation, is considered spiritual adultery; an adultery of which, it is to be feared, multitudes of professed christians are guilty, by endeavoring to connect the law of works with the law of faith; and not being experimentally dead to the law by the body of Christ, they commit the above mentioned adultery by professing to be married to him who arose from the dead.

2d. As it was counted adultery, for a man to put away his wife, and marry another; so for a man to marry a woman, who had been put away from her husband, was considered adultery. By which, I learn; after the law was fulfilled, and, as a dispensation, put away, for the Jews still to marry to the law, would be spiritual adultery; an adultery of which the Jews are guilty even to this day.

I now come to the third and last parable in this chapter, by which the particular subject on which I have been writing, seems to be closed. In order for the reader to make no mistake in this parable, an attention must be paid to the adultery last described.

barrenness of their land, their children and their cattle were to be destroyed by wild beasts, their highways were to be desolate, a sword should be brought upon them which should avenge the quarrel of God's covenant, the pestilence should be sent among them, they should be delivered into the hands of their enemies, for want of bread they should eat and not be satisfied, they should eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters, their high places and images should be destroyed, their carcases should be cast upon the carcases of their idols, their cities should be made waste, their sanctuaries should be brought into desolation, their lands should be brought into desolation, their enemies should dwell in their land, they should be scattered among the heathen, a sword should be drawn out after them, on them who were left alive a faintness should be sent even into their hearts, the sound of a shaken leaf should chase them, they should fall when none pursued, they should fall one upon another, as it were before a sword, they should perish among the heathen, the land of their enemies should eat them up, they should pine away in their iniquity in their enemies' land, and in the iniquities of their fathers they should pine away. Let us state here two questions. Ist. Is it possible to conceive of any punishment more dreadful than the foregoing, to which mortal beings in this state of existence are subject? and, 2d. Is it possible to conceive that any or all of these punishments will be inflicted on that people, or any other, in a future state, and to all eternity? These questions will be answered in the negative by all candid persons. What then is the necessary conclusion? Answer. If these punishments were

for the sins of that people, were according to their sins, and sufficient to avenge the quarrel of God's covenant, then it is certain beyond all contradiction, that the sins of that people did not deserve, not in the eyes of God, who is the proper judge, never ending punishment in the eternal world; nor will God have an occasion, in order to avenge the quarrel of his covenant with that people, to quarrel with them to all eternity. The form of expression here used, though rather harsh, is justified by the sacred text, and it being well calculated to show the nature of the subject in a very evident light, is admitted.

That all these judgments do not render the state of that church hopeless, may be seen by noticing the remainder of this chapter. See from the 40th verse to the close. "If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their tresspass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; and that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her Sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I