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"The same apostacy, its ungodliness, and inevitable fiery doom, are treated of in Jude 3, 4, 13; and in ver. 14, 15, in Enoch's prophecy, where it is said, that the judgment is to be executed upon them by the Lord himself: when the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints.' And in ver. 18, they are styled the mockers, who should be in the last times' walking after their ungodly lusts-sensual, not having the Spirit.'

The same writer observes, p. 3, "Our Lord clearly predicts this antichristian or infidel apostacy to be at the time of the end of this age or dispensation. See Matt. xxiv. 3-5, 10, 13, 24."

It is further remarked,-" In chap. xxv. 1-13, in the parable of the ten virgins, we have the present apostate state of the church clearly foretold, and find that five of the ten were foolish, (or improvident,) and had no oil in their vessels at the time of the approach of the bridegroom, and that after he came, and went in with the five wise virgins to the marriage feast, the foolish were shut out, and came to the door, crying, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us; but he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.' I understand this answer of our Lord as equivalent to a total rejection of these foolish virgins; and that the same apostacy and final rejection are predicted in ch. VII. 21, 23, 'Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,' (or Millennial kingdom, for which he teaches us to pray, 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;') but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many shall say unto me in that day,' (the day of his appearing,) ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy * The Believer's Guide, by Lieut. G. H. Wood.

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name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them I never knew you,' (the same expression as in chap. xxv. 12;) depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' The view here taken of the foolish virgins, as indicative of the total apostacy of a great portion of the visible church at the end of this age, and of their final rejection, as implied in our Lord's reproof,- Verily I say unto you, I know you not,' and, 'depart from me, ye that work iniquity;' is further confirmed by a parallel passage in Luke XIII. 25-29, where in ver. 27, it is thus expressed But he shall say, I tell you I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity;' and then the following damnatory words are added: 'There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out;' and that this is the Millennial kingdom on this earth is manifest from the next verse,' And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.' Further, that this will take place at the coming of the bridegroom, or Second Advent of Christ, (as in Matt. xxv. 6,) is fully proved by ver. 25, 26, where it is said, 'When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye' (the foolish virgins of Matt. xxv.) 'begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto I know you not whence ye are ; then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me all ye workers of iniquity.'

you,

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“I would refer the reader to the following parallel passage to this-of Rom. xI. 22, 23, 30, 31, 'Toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off; and they also, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be grafted in.' Isai. xxix. 9-24, particularly ver. 17, ́ Is it not yet a very little while,' (the little while of Christ's absence, 'till his second coming to judgment,' mentioned in John xiv. 19; xvi. 17; and Heb. x. 37,) and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field,' (that is, the Jews shall be chosen again into God's favour and become fruitful,) and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?' (the Gentile Christian church shall become fruitless, be judged, and rejected.) As also in Isaiah xxxII. 15, Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field,' (the Jews received into favour,) and the fruitful field be counted for a forest," (the Gentile church's barrenness and rejection.) Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness,' (now become a fruitful field, and blossoming as the rose,) and righteousness remain in the fruitful field,'-'when' (at the same time) 'it shall hail, coming down on the forest,' (ver. 19,) that is, God's vengeance shall fall upon the apostate Gentile church, now being counted for a forest, and no longer a fruitful field."

The extract which follows relative to * one of the most noted sceptics of modern times, portrays, in lively colours, the vanity and end of infidelity.

"Many called his evil good,

Wits wrote in favour of his wickedness;
And kings to do him honour took delight.
Thus, full of titles, flattery, honour, fame,

* Lord Byron.

Beyond desire, beyond ambition, full,

He died. He died of what?—of wretchedness.
Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump

Of fame, drank early, deeply drank, drank draughts,
That common millions might have quenched; then died
Of thirst, because there was no more to drink.

His goddess, Nature, wooed, embraced, enjoyed,
Fell from his arms abhorred; his passions died;
Died all but dreary solitary pride;

And all his sympathies in being died.

As some ill-guided bark, well built and tall,
Which angry tides cast out on desert shore,
And then retiring, left it there to rot

And moulder in the winds and rains of heaven;
So he, cut from the sympathies of life,
And cast ashore from Pleasure's boisterous surge,
A wandering, weary, worn, and wretched thing,
Scorched, and desolate, and blasted soul,

A gloomy wilderness of dying thought,

Repined, and groaned, and withered from the earth.

"Proof this, beyond all lingering of doubt,
That not with natural or mental wealth,
Was God delighted, or his peace secured;
That not in natural or mental wealth,
Was human happiness or grandeur found.
Attempt how monstrous, and how surely vain!
With things of earthly sort, with aught but God,
With aught but moral excellence, truth, and love,
To satisfy and fill the immortal soul.
Attempt, vain inconceivably! attempt
To satisfy the Ocean with a drop,

To marry Immortality to Death,

And with the unsubstantial shade of Time,

To fill the embrace of all Eternity!" *

Professor Vaughan summarily observes, "The end proposed by Christianity is, to restore man, by an exercise of

* Pollok.

the divine compassion to the state from which he has fallen; and by enlightening his mind, and creating within him those spiritual sympathies which may qualify him for the intelligent and sincere worship of his Maker, to prepare him for the perfection and happiness of a better life.'

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Since the establishment of Christianity, the relapse of so great a portion of the Christian world into infidelity, may be attributed to two prominent causes, viz., the deficiency of Scriptural instruction, and the almost universal prevalence of the antiscriptural and idolatrous tenets of the church of Rome.

The paucity of copies of the Scriptures before the art of printing was discovered, and the comparative ignorance of mankind as it regarded the religious tuition of their offspring, though a great, has not been so powerful a cause of the propagation of infidelity as the repugnance which the Romish hierarchy manifested, at an early period, to the circulation of the Scriptures, and who at length prohibited to the laity, their perusal, under pain of death.

"A.D. 1229. In the council of Thoulouse a most severe and sanguinary inquisition was established against heretics. One of its canons is, 'It shall not be permitted to laymen to have the books of the Old and New Testament, only they, who out of devotion desire it, may have a Psalter, a Breviary, and the Hours of the Virgin. But we absolutely forbid them to have the above-mentioned books translated into the vulgar tongue.'"*

Mrs. Piozzi in her Retrospection, also observes: "Between the first portion of the sixth century and the expulsion of the Gothic kings, the standard or criterion of our

* Dr. Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History.