pecting this fire, the conclusion will fully evince. Observe Mark ix. 49. "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Remember that we are exhorted to offer our bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is our reasonable service; but this cannot be done until we are salted with fire. Again, in verse 50, Christ says, "Salt is good; but if the salt have lost its saltness, where with will you season it ?" that is, the sacrifice. But we are not to suppose that this divine fire can change in itself, but that it may be quenched in us; and therefore we are exhorted not to quench the Spirit. And Christ closes, by exhorting his disciples to have salt in themselves, (which salt is that fire which can never be quenched,) and to have peace one with another. Here, undoubtedly, we see the end of the holy fire on the altar of sacrifice used in the priesthood of the law.

ILLUSTRATION.

Because it is said in Mark ix. that the fire, into which the subject should be cast, "never shall be quenched," the passage has generally been applied to the support of the doctrine of future, eternal unmerciful punishment. And indeed, all such like passages must be applied to that use, or that doctrine must lose the credit which has, for a long time, perhaps too implicitly, been given to it.

To show that such doctrine has no natural connexion with the text and context, we may notice the following particulars.

1st. Those to whom the words of the parable were spoken.

2d. The character of the speaker, as he stood in relation to those to whom he spake; and

3d. The nature and manifest design of the fire which is never to be quenched.

1st. According to the connexion of the text, where it is found in the 5th of Matthew, Jesus spake these words to those whom he calls in the 13th verse "the salt of the earth," and in the 14th "the light of the world." According to the connexion in the 9th of Mark, these words were spoken by Christ to his disciples, as may be seen by reading from the 31st verse to the end of the chapter.

2d. The character in which Jesus stood, in relation to his disciples may be learned by the following scriptures. St. John xv. 12, &c. "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command

you.

Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." See also chap. xiii. 34. "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." From these scriptures we learn that Jesus acknowledged himself to be a friend to his disciples, who loved them, and was ready to lay down his life for them. The strength of his love to his disciples is also expressed in the 9th verse of the 15th of John; "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you." 3dly. The nature and manifest design of the fire which is never to be quenched, we learn, as has been observed in the notes, by observing that Jesus says, in the 49th verse of the 9th of Mark, "For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacri

fice shall he salted with salt." This salt, which is the fire which never shall be quenched, is the same, no doubt, represented, as has been noticed, by the salt of the covenant under the law, according to the directions given in Lev. ii. 13. the manifest design of this fire is to save, by its purifying qualities, the subject on which it operates. Now if we can find any natural connexion between the three particulars, here brought to view, and the future, éternal, unmerciful punishment of those disciples and acknowledged friends of Jesus Christ, then the common opinion of this scripture stands on the evidence of the text. But the erroneousness of such an opinion is so palpable, that it requires no argument to make it more so.

The objector, possessing an unaccountable attachment to the opinion generally entertained of the text, will say,-Although these words were spoken to the disciples of Christ, they ought to be applied to men in general. To this I agree, but Rot to the exclusion of the disciples. There surely would be no propriety in saying, that, though Christ spake the words of our parable to his disciples, he did not mean that they should take either the direction or the warning to themselves. In the connexion of the text in Matthew v. Christ says to his disciples, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the king dom of heaven." It surely would not be correct to say that Christ did not mean that his disciples should not enter into the kindom of heaven except their righteousness should exceed that of the scribes and pharisees. The truth is plain enough, The disciples of Christ, as well as every body else,

must have a better righteousness than that of the scribes and pharisees, in order to enter into the kingdom of heaven; and the disciples, as well as every body else, were exposed to be cast into that refining fire, which never shall be quenched. Therefore, if any of the human race ever were exposed to endless, unmerciful punishment, as proved, or intended by our parable, the disciples most surely were thus exposed. It is then reasonable for us to query to see what friendship that must be which would exercise itself in inflicting endless, unmerciful punishment? If this be friendship, what is enmity? If it be argued that the subject deserves this unmerciful punishment, and that it is inflicted by justice, though directly contrary to the benevolent principle of friendship, it is acknowledging that the friendship of Christ is directly opposed to justice. According to the scriptures, Christ was so great a friend to all mankind as to lay down his life for them, and he is said to be the same yesterday, to day and forever. How then can he become unmerciful to those very sinners whom he loves, and for whom he died? The propriety of the notes on this parable, and their relation to the whole connexion, is easy to be seen; for any punishment which is calculated to purge and cleanse mankind from sin, is perfectly consistent with the love and friendship which our Saviour has manifested for mankind. David was afflicted with the pains and sorrows of hell, and acknowledged that it was good for him that he was afflicted. The goodness of God to mankind is no less evident in the chastisements with which he corrects his children, than in the smiles of his providence; for the Lord will not cast off forever, but though he cause grief,

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yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.

PARABLE VI,

"Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and nar row is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be which find it." MAT. vii. 13, 14.

By the strait gate, we understand the way of life communicated under the law, the word strait having the signification of difficult; the word narrow is also used in describing the gate, or way of life. The way of life, under the law, in respect to dispensation, was through those shadowy types made use of under that dispensation, or in the priesthood of the law; and the way was so narrow or difficult, that few, very few were enabled to look through the figures of the law, and behold Christ: Or if possible to make the idea more plain, we say, Christ is the only way of life, as he says of himself, "I am the way," &c. And although it And although it may seem disagreeable to a christian who has been taught the unbounded grace of the Saviour, and viewed him as a place of broad rivers, to tell him that this same Jesus was narrow, life difficult to be obtained by him, &c. yet, when we consider that the christian of the present day enjoys those things which many prophets long desired but obtained not, and that those who had the brightest ideas of the Saviour, under the law, saw him, in respect to the present dispensation, through a glass, and that as