damnation. To eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices, is all the punishment with which transgressors are threatened in this text.

"The wicked must be converted here, for they cannot be hereafter. The Scriptures frequently speak of cases where there is no more sacrifice for sin, that God's "spirit will not always strive with man." Gen. vi. 3. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God for he will abundantly pardon." Isaiah lv. 7.

The word converted means changed; and if the gentleman means to say that there is no change for man after death, he quarrels with an apostle, who de clares that "the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The apostle taught that hereafter men would be converted "in a moment," from corruptible to incorruptible. Or if by "converted," he means an unaccountable and miraculous transformation in a man's whole nature, which he must experience here, or be damned hereafter, then he would not only add to the doctrines of the Bible, but he would also damn all the apostles, without exception, and all the early followers of Christ. See remarks on this subject, page 71 of this work.

No. 5.

CHAPTER IX.

Parable of the Ten Virgins." The unjust shall be unjust still."-The phrase "Anathema Maran-atha."-Belierers in endless misery desire the salvation of all.—Rewards and punishments.—Belief and evidence.—Meaning of the phrase death.-Man's condition at death remedi less.— Impossibility of renewing to repentance those who fall away.

Matt. xxv. 5-10. "While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps; and the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out: but the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you; but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut."

But this the Universalists, to avoid its force, will tell you is a parable."

And does he mean to say it is not a parable? The subject commences with the beginning of the chapter, "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins," &c. He took five verses out of the middle of the parable of the ten virgins, and after he had thus dragged them from their connection, he says, with

a guilty tone," Universalists will say this is a parable." He did not dare to say plainly that it was not a parable, but tried to give his hearers to understand it was not, by a cowardly evasion of the fact.

What a frightful chapter of eccentricities he makes of this parable, by calling it literal history, according to his creed! God's immortal kingdom made up of five foolish and five wise virgins, who arose at midnight to put oil in their lamps, and go out to attend a wedding. All this took place literally in the immortal kingdom of God. Why this man would make an excellent commentator for "Sinbad, the Sailor." He would write admirable notes to the "Arabian Knights."

Bishop Pearce has wisely said that the word then, at the commencement of this parable, "shows that Jesus, in this chapter, is speaking on the same subject as in the foregoing one, viz: what was to happen at the destruction of the Jewish state."* Christ had warned his disciples to watch for that event, which he confined to that generation. Those were the wise virgins who were in readiness when the event did come, and so escaped the common doom of the unbelieving Jews. But the foolish virgins were not watching, and perished with the enemies of Christ.

Revelations xxii. 11. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still; and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still; and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

What possible allusion has this text to the future * See his Com. on verse 13.

world? It does not say he that is unjust at death, let him be unjust to all eternity, &c. Nor did the gentleman dare to offer a word of evidence to show that such was its meaning. He dare not appeal to the context to substantiate his application of the passage. He dare not even quote the verse that precedes, and the one that follows the text. But does he suppose that he is preaching to fools and barbarians, that will not propose to themselves the question, when were these things to be? when was he that was unjust, to be unjust still? &c. Any man, who is not an idiot in the laws of language, would perceive instantly, by the construction of the text, that it must refer to a period before mentioned, when he who should be found unjust, at said time, would continue unjust. It was the gentleman's business as a teacher of the Bible, to show his hearers what that time was; and if, through ignorance or cowardice, he failed to do his duty, it was their privilege and their duty to turn to the passage, and decide that question for themselves. Nor could they fail to see that the text has not the least allusion to the spiritual world; for the verse preceding the text reads thus: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand." That event was " at hand," nearly 2000 years ago, when "he that was unjust" would be confirmed in his injustice. And the verse following the text reads, "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according to his works." The last clause of this verse is a quotation from Matt. xvi. 27, where Christ said that he would "come and reward

every man according to his works," before some of those who were standing before him, should "taste of death."

Dr. Clark's remarks on the verse preceding the text, "Seal not the sayings of this book, for the time is at hand," [when the unjust will be unjust still,] are very just: "Do not lay them up for future generations, they concern the present times; they must shortly come to pass, for the time is at hand."

1 Cor. xvi. 22, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maran-atha."

"So Paul judged that a man ought to be damned, who will not love the Lord Jesus Christ; but Universalists say that men deserve to be saved whether they love and revere Christ or not."

Anathema maran-atha means damnation! Indeed, this man is "a gentleman and a scholar," or may be so, perhaps, by proper training. Maran-atha is compounded of two Syrian words, maran and atha, which is literally, the Lord cometh.* Anathema is a Greek word, from anatithema, which means, I separate. It signifies, says the learned Leigh, "accursed, or separated." In a note on the text in Thompson's translation of the Bible, the learned author says, "Anathema maran-atha' were terms used by the Jews, when they excommunicated a person." And Wakefield, in his translation of the New Testament, has rendered the whole passage thus: "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be separated from you. Our Lord is coming." Anathema, he translates "separated;" and maran-atha, he renders literally, "Our Lord is

* See Critica Sacra.