Jews and Gentiles; the latter, or eternal punishment, is undergone by the unbelieving descendants of Israel according to the flesh, as the righteous retribution of the persecutions undergone by Christ and his disciples at their hands. 1 Thessal: ii. 14—16.—Such, understood in its primary sense, is the plain, obvious, and consistent, meaning of that much abused passage of scripture, Matthew xxv. 31-46.

The story of the rich man and Lazarus in the xvith chapter of Luke, is in the same predicament with the passage in Matthew which we have just been considering, and falls to be explained on the same principles. Strange to tell, the greater part of those who have referred to, quoted, and commented on, Luke xvi. 19— 31, have overlooked the connection of this passage with what precedes and follows, and have failed to perceive that as a parable it cannot be literally interpreted. Our Lord was addressing the Jews, and warning them of of the awful events which were speedily approaching; but he did so in parabolical or figurative language, for a reason assigned by himself, Mattw: xiii. 13-15. The parable here employed is that of two men, one of whom is rich, and is the representative of the Jewish nation, abounding in religious and civil privileges during the subsistance of the Mosaic economy; Rom: iii. 1, 2; ix. 4, 5; the other of whom is poor, and is the representative of the Gentiles, who, during the existence of that economy, were entirely destitute of religious privileges directly, and who only indirectly and occasionally, by means of intercourse with the Jews scattered among

them, picked up views of the character of the living and true God, in like manner as the dogs pick up crumbs falling from a rich man's table. Mark vii. 27, 28.In process of time both these men die, or their respective states come to an end: the rich man is buried, or the Mosaic dispensation is finally and completely overturned; while the poor man is carried by angels into Abra ham's bosom, or Gentiles, by faith in the declarations of the prophets and apostles as Jesus' angels or messengers, become Abraham's spiritual seed, and partakers of the blessings promised to him. Rom: ii. 28, 29; iv. 11-17; Gal: iii. 29. The rich man, however, in his new state is in torments; or the Jews still adhering to the law of Moses and their ancient worship and institutions, are subjected to awful and painful marks of the divine vengeance: not the last aggravation of which is, their perceiving the Gentiles in Abraham's bosom ; or observing the religious privileges into the possession of which the Gentiles have as partakers of Abraham's faith, been introduced. Gal: iii. 9, compared with Acts ii. 2, 3; xiii. 6—11, 50; xiv. 2, 19; xv. 1; xvi. 3; xvii. 5; &c.-The Jews solicit from Abraham, to whom they plead a natural relationship, a very little water to cool the tip of their tongues; that is, some mitigation of their torments: but this he declares to be impossible. Abraham now knows them not. Nay, he informs them, that there is now an impassable gulph interposed between him and them; by which he gives them to understand, that, whereas under the former dispensation it was impossible for any man to be an object of the divine

approbation who was not a Jew or a proselyte to Judaism, the tables were now so completely turned, that it was impossible for any man who continued a Jew, and rejected Jesus as the Messiah, at the same time to enjoy the slightest token of the divine favour. The parable closes by hinting, in a very broad and intelligible manner, that the great bulk of the Jewish nation, who had failed to discover from the writings of Moses and the prophets that Jesus was the Messiah during his personal ministry, would remain unconvinced even by the fact of his resurrection from the dead.-What, to the attentive and spiritually-instructed reader, can be plainer than all this? In what part of the parable, interpreted according to the genuine principles of metaphorical language, and viewed in connexion with the context, is there discoverable the slightest foundation for the ordinary doctrine of eternal punishment by means of torments in a future state of existence ?-Those who are desirous to prosecute their researches into this subject farther, may peruse with profit the 49th Psalm; which, besides exposing the notions usually entertained respecting creature immortality, points to the fate of the Mosaic dispensation and its pertinacious supporters.

CONCLUSION.

Having thus completed what was originally intended, I might now bring the essay to a close, did not two or three points, intimately connected with the subject of which I have been treating, seem to demand a little passing notice.

It may be alleged, that "the scope and tendency of the preceding statements and reasonings is to do away with the existence of evil spirits altogether; and, indeed, with all such beings as are commonly denominated Angels." To this I reply, that, in nothing advanced or insisted on by me, has it been my intention to say a single word which could be so construed as to imply a limitation of the divine power and sovereignty. I firmly believe, taught by the scriptures themselves, that God may, whenever and in whatever way He pleases, create any intelligent being or order of intelligent beings, whether good or evil, and employ them in the execution of His purposes, whatever these may be. The man who after perusing the foregoing work has not perceived my belief in the doctrine of the existence of angels there expressed, as well as numerous hints of what I conceive these superior intelligences to be, has, I am sorry to say, read it to very little purpose.* At the same time,

* Do not believers of the truth, as possessed of immortal principle and as consequently surviving the stroke of natural death, constitute the glorious and ever-increasing company of the angelic hosts? Compare Matthew xxii. 30-32, and the parallel passage in Luke, with Hebrews xii. 22, 23.