they will say this, we are not yet permitted to know; but no one believes the divine testimony can doubt that they will at a proper time. The benefit derived from the gulf, will then be obtained, and Jews and Gentiles will rejoice together in the fruition of eternal life.

Appendix.

WE cannot refrain from adding, by way of appendix to the notes on this parable, that writers of different christian denominations have taken the same view of it with ourselves. The following extracts from two authors of some note, confirm the remark here made.

Theophylact, from whose Commentary on the Four Gospels the following extract was made, lived in the eleventh century, and was Metropolitan of Bulgaria. He certainly was not an Universalist; yet he considered it as by no means doing injustice to the parable, to explain it as we have done. Here follows the extract:

"In the preceding verses, our Lord had taught us to conduct ourselves properly with regard to our riches; and to the same purpose, he adds, by way of example, this Parable. For this is a Parable, and not, as some have thought, a history; because that the blessings of eternity were not yet adjudg ed to the righteous, nor the judgments to the wicked. But the Lord spake figuratively, designing to teach the unmerciful what was at length to come upon them, and on the other hand, to assure the afflicted how happy they are to become, for the evils they here sustain." Accordingly, Theophy

lact proceeds to apply this Parable, as a representation of the different conditions of the proud sinner and of the humble saint, after the general judgment; and he incidentally reasons from the Parable, against Origen's doctrine of the restoration, because Abraham says, "that they which would pass from hence to you, cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence."

At last, however, Theophylact says, "But this Parable can also be explained in the way of allegory; so that we may say that by the rich man is signified the Jewish people. For they were formerly rich, abounding in all divine knowledge, wisdom and instruction, which are more excellent than gold and precious stones. And they were arrayed in purple and fine linen, as they possessed a kingdom, and a priesthood, and were themselves a royal priesthood to God. The purple denoted their kingdom; and the fine linen, their priesthood. For the Levites were clothed in sacerdotal vestments of fine linen; and they fed sumptuously and lived spendidly, every day. Daily did they offer the morning and the evening sacrifice; which they also called the continual sacrifice. But Lazarus was the Gentile people; poor in divine grace and wisdom, and lying before the gates for it was not permitted to the Gentiles to enter the house itself, because they were considered a pollution. Thus, in the Acts of the apostles, we read that it was alleged against Paul that he had introduced Gentiles into the temple, and made that holy place common or unclean. Moreover, those people were full of fetid sores of sin, on which the impudent dogs, or devils, fed, who delight themselves in our sores. The Gentiles likewise desired even the crumbs which fell from the tables of the rich; for

they were wholly destitute of that bread which strengthens the heart of man, and wanted even the smallest morsel of food; so that the Canaanite woman (Matt. xv. 27,) when she was a heathen, desired to be fed with the crumbs. In short the Hebrew people were dead unto God, and their bones, which could not be moved to do good, were perished. Lazarus also, I mean the Gentile people, were dead in sin. And the envious Jews who were dead in sins, did actually burn in a flame of jealousy, as saith the apostle, on account of the Gentiles being received into the faith, and because that those who had before been a poor and despised Gentile race, were now in the bosom of Abraham, the father of nations. And justly, indeed, were they thus revived. For it was while Abraham was yet a Gentile, that he believed God, and turned from the worship of idols to the knowledge of God. Therefore, it was proper that they who were partakers of his conversion and faith, should rest in his bosom, sharing the same final lot, the same habitation and the same blessedness. And the Jewish people longed for one drop of the former legal sprinklings and purifications to refresh their tongue, that they might confidently say to us that the Law was still efficacious and availing. But it was not, For the Law was only until John. And the Psalinist says, sacrifice and oblations thou wouldst not, &c."

Theophylact then briefly observes, that we ought to make a moral use of this Parable, and not despise our servants who stand at our gates. Theophylacti in Quatuor Evangelia Enarrationes, p. 119, Edit. Basil, 1525,

We may add the testimony of another writer, who, we suppose, was not an Universalist, to the

correctness of the views we have advanced. We extract the following from a work entitled a "Rationale of the Literal Doctrine of Original Sin, &c. By James Bate, M. A. Rector of Deptford."

"We will suppose, then, the rich man who fared so sumptuously, to be the Jew; so amply enriched with the heavenly treasure of divine revelation. The poor beggar, who lay at his gate, in so miserable a plight, was the poor Gentile; now reduced to the last degree of want in regard to religious knowledge. The crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, and which the beggar was so desirous of picking up, were such fragments of patriarchal and Jewish traditions. as their travelling philosophers were able to pick up, with their utmost care and diligence. And those philosophers were also the dogs that licked the sores of heathenism, and endeavored to supply the wants of divine revelation, by such schemes and hypotheses concerning the nature of the gods, and the obligation of moral duties, as (due allowance for their ignorance and frailties) did no small honor to human nature, and yet thereby plainly showed, how little a way unassisted reason could go, without some supernatural help; as one of the wisest of them frankly confessed. About one and the same time, the beggar dies, and is carried by the angels (i. e. God's spiritual messengers to mankind) into Abrahom's bosom; that is, he is engrafted into the church of God. And the rich man also dies and is buried. He dies what we call a political death. His dispensation ceases. He is rejected from being any longer the peculiar son of God. The people whom he parabolically represents, are miserably destroyed by the Romans, and the wretched remains of them driven into exile over the face of the earth; mere vagabonds, with a kind of mark set upon them,

like Cain their prototype, for a like crime; and which mark may perhaps be their adherence to the law. Whereby it came amazingly to pass, that these people, though dispersed, yet still dwell alone and separate; not being reckoned among the nations, as Balaam foretold. The rich man being reduced to this state of misery, complains bitterly of his hard fate but is told by Abraham, that he slipped his opportunity, while Lazarus laid hold on his, and now receives the comfort of it. The Jew complains of the want of more evidence, to convince his countrymen, the five brethren; and would fain have Lazarus sent from the dead to convert them. But Abraham tells him, that if their own scriptures cannot convince them of their error, neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. And exactly so it proved in the event. For, this parable was delivered towards the end of the third year of our Lord's ministry; and in the fourth, or following year of it, the words put into the mouth of Abraham, as the conclusion of the parable, are most literally verified, by our Lord's raising another Lazarus from the dead. And we may presume that the beggar had the fictitious name of Lazarus given him in the parable, not without some reason, since the supposed request of the rich man, was fully answered, by our Lord's raising another, and a real Lazarus, from the dead. But what was the consequence? Did this notorious miracle convince the rich man's brethren? No, truly. His visit to them from the dead, was so far from convincing them, that they actually consulted together, that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. So much for the true sense of this parable."