Outer darkness, or darkness which is without, imports a greater and more oppressive degree than is common; even exclusion from the happiness of heaven. That it also implies punishment, or a state of suffering, appears from the weeping and gnashing of teeth which attend it. We may, therefore, assuredly conclude, that the consequence of faithfully improving the talents committed to us by Christ our Lord, will be joy and blessedness with him. And that the consequence of neglecting or abusing them, will be grief and misery extreme. This, though we may not be able to ascertain the exact mode or degree of that joy or misery, is enough to determine the conduct of a wise and prudent man.

St. Paul hath said, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."* And St. Peter hath told us, that "the heavens and the earth which are now, are reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." The Prophet Daniel had this solemn judgment revealed to him..." many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame, and everlasting contempt." And a greater than Daniel, Christ himself hath declared, that "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation."s From these authorities we may fairly draw this conclusion, that in the day of judgment, the good and the wicked shall not both fare alike. The one shall be happy, the other miserable; the one shall be saved, the other lost; the one shall rise to everlasting life, the other to shame and everlasting contempt; the one shall come forth from the graves to the resurrection of life, the other to the resurrection of damnation. Suppose we cannot exactly tell what is meant by

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these terms, so as precisely to describe the felicity of the good, and the misery of the wicked after the day of judgment; yet, being saved and being lost, everlasting life and everlasting contempt, the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation, are phrases of directly opposite meaning. Immense is the difference between them; and it ought to excite us to exert every ability to escape the misery, and obtain the happiness of the world to come. In the presence of God is fulness of joy, and at his right hand there are pleasures for ever more;* while no one can tell till he feel it, what that weight of misery is, which in outer darkness causeth weeping and gnashing of teeth. The Scriptures describe it in terms that ought to make the deepest impression on us--by the worm that dieth not, by the fire that is not quenched, by the torment that ascendeth up for ever and ever. They also inform us, that the goodness of God hath provided, and pointed out to us the certain means of escaping this dreadful state; even the mediation and atonement of Jesus Christ our Lord, who, as a man gone into a far country, is now in heaven; but who will return at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead. That he will then inquire into the use and improvement of the advantages and blessings which by his Gospel he hath conferred on us; and that our future state will be in happiness in heaven, or in misery in outer darkness, as his sentence shall determine.

Whether any better excuse can be made in the tremendous scene of the last judgment, than was made by the' wicked servant, ought to be well considered by those who find any disposition in themselves to imitate his conduct. He thought, at least he said, that his Lord was a hard man, and required more of his servants than he had given them ability to perform: he therefore took no trouble to improve the talent committed to him.Those Christians, who suppose that Christ requires a greater degree of penitence, and faith, and humility, and

charity, and holiness, and purity, than they are, under all the advantages of the Gospel, able to attain ; and who, therefore, give themselves little or no trouble about the matter, ought to reflect seriously on their condition. They are, in truth, in the very state of the wicked and slothful servant who hid his Lord's talent; and fruitless will it be for them to urge a plea, which will certainly be over-ruled by the Judge.

But the more general ground on which people, who give themselves but little concern about their Christian conversation, build their hopes, is the infinite mercy of God, and the merit of Christ's death. "God's mercy," say they, " is infinite, and will be extended to all menChrist died for all men; and therefore, all men will be saved by his death." Happy would it be for us, could we be content that God should be wiser than we are: It would abate our self-sufficiency, and lead us to depend more on what he says, than on our own weak reasoning. In him, justice and mercy cannot operate against each other, because there is nothing discordant in his nature. His mercy is infinite; and through his mercy he gave his Son to be the Redeemer of all men, that all men through him might be saved : and yet, we know not that he hath had mercy on the apostate angels. Christ died for all men, and yet the wicked servant was cast into outer darkness. It will be our wisdom, as it is our duty to understand God's promises as they are generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture, and not endeavour to explain them into a sense which the Scripture will not war. rant. He knows best his own nature and our state, and he will do and judge that which is right. In the Scriptures, we find that the love of God gave Christ to die for the redemption of the world-that he founded a society in the world, called his Kingdom, or Church, or Body - that he sent his Apostles to call men out of the world into this Church, appointing Baptism as the sacrament of admission; and requiring repentance from sin, and faith in him as the Saviour of sinners, to qualify them for Baptism-that he is now gone into heaven, to appear in the presence of God, and to intercede for his Church, as its great High Priest; to receive his mediatorial kingdom and govern it, as its King; and to instruct and direct it by his Holy Spirit, as its Prophet-that he hath his officers and servants in his Church; not only to invite and admit men into it, but to govern and direct it according to the laws and rules he hath given that he requires all men to whom his Gospel is preached, to come into his Church as the ark of their salvation; and to live godly, righteously, and soberly in it; renouncing and abstaining from all the defilements of the world, the flesh, and the devil; to keep up their faith in him, by believing and doing all that he hath taught and commanded; and their union with him, by preserving the unity of his Church, and complying with all the ordinances and institutions of it-and that he will come again at the last day, in his glorious Majesty, to take account of the conduct of its members, when they, who shall be approved of by him, shall be admitted into his heavenly kingdom; but the wicked and unfaithful shall be cast into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. Be this our faith, and let our conversation be according to it.

7. From the view we have taken of this Parable, it ap pears to relate particularly to the final judgment of the Christian Church, as it stands distinguished from the world.

To set this matter in a fair light, I shall mention two or three considerations, taken from the Parable and other places of Scripture.

Let it then be recollected, that the man travelling into a far country, called to him his own servants-those who were properly and peculiarly so; and to them delivered his goods-his substance, that which was his own property. As by this man must be meant our Lord Jesus Christ, going to heaven after his personal ministry on earth was finished; * so by his own servants must be meant his apostles and disciples, including all those who should become so, to the end of the world. These are his own proper servants, as distinguished from the rest of the world. To them he delivered his goods, the things which belonged to him; namely, his Gospel of peace and reconciliation with God; together with all the blessings, privileges, and advantages which belong to it. These were his own; he had earned and purchased them: And they are represented in the parable by talents, or sums of money, delivered to his disciples and followers, that they might occupy and improve them till he returned. Their improvement of their talents, or the increase they gained, signifies their compliance with the call and conditions of the Gospel, and their fulfilling the duties it requires of them according to their several stations.

In this description they must all be included to whom the Gospel is fairly preached, though many of them may refuse to accept it: Because the offer of the Gospel is a talent of which they, to whom it is made, must give an account; and consequently they shall be judged by the Gospel which they unreasonably rejected. Among these, the Jews must be reckoned, who obstinately and wickedly resisted all the calls to repentance and acknowledgment of the truth, which were made to them by Christ and his Apostles, and by the Christian Church, from their time to ours. Theirs was the favour of God's former dispensation; a talent of great price, and which ought to have been better improved, and to have led them to Messiah, to whom their law and prophets clearly point

ed.

Others there are, who directly imitate the conduct of the Jews. They reject the mediation and atonement of Christ, though fairly preached and offered to them.Nor will they enter into his Church, nor receive his laws, And as the Jews reject Christ that they may retain the law of Moses, and expect to obtain justification by it; these people retire from the light and salvation of the Gospel, to the dark and cold prospects of the reli