therewith conjoined, which are not man's own, but are of the Lord with him. From this source it is that a sense of pain and remorse is often felt when man falls into the practice of evil, or confirms himself in the inclination of the natural man alone; and into these the Lord can flow, to operate what is necessary for man's reformation, so far as he does not decidedly confirm himself against it: if he does, after a time, the truths received from the Word become in a manner abolished from his mind, and the remonstrances of conscience, having long been stifled, at last cease to be made. The pain then which is first felt when man plunges into evil and disorder, after his mind has been furnished with such knowledge from the Word as might teach him better, is denoted by its being said that the fellow-servants, when they saw what was done, were very sorry, their sorrow denoting contrariety between the man's conduct and the dictates of divine truth.

32. But this not being sufficient to withhold him, it is necessary that he should be subjected to a severe discipline, which is denoted by the servants telling their lord, and his rebuking and punishing the servant. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me. This evidently denotes the perceptions communicated to man of the enormity of his conduct-a conviction of the judgment which is based upon it by the Divine truth; and bitter indeed are the pangs of conscience which are endured by this conviction. "O thou wicked servant." What can this imply, when pronounced by the Lord, but a declaration and discovery of his own utter depravity and liability to eternal ruin! And what can it imply as apprehended by man but a perception of the corruption of his entire nature both by inheritance and choice-a perception that in himself he is indeed nothing but evil! "I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me." This evidently is a bringing to mind of the pure mercy of the Lord, which giveth liberally and upbraideth not, and which is such as requires nothing of man but a desire on his part to receive it. This is introduced to point out what is the conduct which is plainly the duty of man, and without a compliance with which even the boundless mercy of the Lord is not sufficient for his salvation.

33. For the Lord adds, Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on thee? This instructs us that man is to make charity the rule of his conduct as to his external man, even as the Lord acts from love towards him, and is willing to communicate charity to his internal man. Certainly nothing can be stronger, more pathetic, more impressive, than the mode in which

this remonstrance is stated in the literal sense. It is impossible to convey in a more forcible manner the precept, that man is to cultivate in his bosom the feelings of charity and forgiveness. And to remind him of this duty, he has the Lord's divine words before him, "I forgave thee all that debt." Does it not assure him of the constant presence of the Divine mercy, love, and forgiveness, from whence he may take as much as is sufficient to enable him also to act under the principle of love, and so to remove his evils that they may be forgiven or remitted indeed.

34. The consequence of man's not doing so is stated in its being said, His lord was wroth. Such expressions do not mean that there really are any vengeful passions in the Source of all good, but by such language the contrariety between the state of the wicked and the Lord's divine love is what is intended, and their inability to view him such as he really is, because they do not receive his love in their own hearts and minds; for it is always through the medium of his own state that man forms his interior ideas of the Divine nature. So, by the expression of the Lord being wroth, we are taught that when man plunges into evil, or desires to enjoy the powers of his natural man to promote merely selfish designs, he so averts himself from the Lord that he can no longer, as before, enjoy an inward perception of him as a God of love, remitting his debts and deficiencies. Before this cen be restored, states of severe temptation are to be undergone; for it is only by means of temptations that evils can be removed from the affections, so that the heart shall lust after them no longer. This process is what is described by its being said that the lord delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. The payment of all that was due unto him, in this view of the subject, is that species of payment which is that alone which the Lord requires, which consists in the grateful acceptance of the Lord's mercies, the appropriation of them to the use for which they are given, and the return of all to the Lord, in the sincere acknowledgment that all are from him. But should man determine to continue in the confirmation of his evils, then these words describe, not the temptations by which evils are removed, but the desolations by which he is deprived of every real good which he had received, and every noble faculty which he had abused; and the payment of the debt is then to be understood in the other sense which we have seen it bears,—that of the resumption, as it were, by the Lord, of all the endowments which man continues to pervert. When once evil has been confirmed in the mind, it can only be removed by the discipline of temptation; and

removed it must be before good can become predominant, and the man prepared for a state wherein good ever reigns. So when once any good or truth has been received in affection, and confirmed, it only can be removed, if evil obtains the mastery, by desolations; and it must be removed before the wretched victim can be consigned to his final home in the abodes of darkness; and if it cannot be removed, it is because a state of profanation has been induced, which is attended with worse horrors even than one of unmixed evil.

35. Since, even at the best, evils once confirmed can never be removed from the interiors but by painful temptations, how strongly should come home to us the divine words with which the Lord makes the application of his parable,-So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. In the natural sense this teaches us that we cannot be in the reception of the Lord's love towards ourselves, but in proportion as we are in the exercise of charity towards others. And, spiritually, we are reminded by it of the necessity of putting away evils, by man himself, in order to their removal and remission by the Lord. In the Lord's prayer we are desired to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;" thus the forgiveness of debts by us is prescribed as the measure of the forgiveness which will be awarded to us by our Divine Judge; and we are in the strongest manner forbidden to look for forgiveness on any other ground, when we are even commanded in our prayers to recognize the unalterable nature of this rule of the Lord's divine order. The meaning is, that so far as we have ourselves power over our conduct and inclinations, we are to regulate them by the dictates of the laws of eternal truth and goodness. Now we have such power over all that belongs to our natural man. We can control our actions so as to refrain from the commission of actual evils. We can control our inclinations and thoughts so far as not to encourage and wilfully dwell upon such tendencies or imaginations as we know to be evil. So far as this, we can spiritually forgive our brother his trespasses; we can make good or charity our rule of action, and remit or remove whatever would violate it. So far then our heavenly Father will forgive our trespasses; will remit or remove the tendencies and lusts towards evil which exist in our interior, and will pass upon us eventually the judgment of charity and mercy.

CHAPTER XIX.

Two most momentous questions are settled in the present chapter— one on the nature of marriage, the other on the conditions of salvation. To hear the truth on these subjects from the lips of Him who created man, and who came to restore him, and thus to redeem marriage to its primeval purity, and man to his original order and happiness, is a privilege one should greatly prize.

1. And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan. This describes a progression of the Lord's love or goodness in man from the external, which is Galilee, to the internal, which is Judea, through the knowledges of good and truth, which is Jordan. Yet it was only to the coasts of Judea that the Lord came, implying an elevation of the Lord's love, not into the internal itself, but to its externals or borders.

2. Here the Lord, as was his wont, engaged in works of benevolence. Great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there. Those affections and thoughts in us that follow the Lord with a desire to be freed from their hereditary and acquired infirmities, and to be elevated by him, and into conjunction with him, are restored to soundness, and brought into heavenly order, so as to fit them for useful and happy activity.

3. But where good is present, there evil shows itself. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? When the good affections and thoughts are attracted to the Lord for instruction and teaching, the evil are excited into opposition, seeking too often to overturn the authority of divine truth by insidious reasonings. Like Satan among the sons of God, the Pharisees, or some other enemies of the truth, are sure to appear where the good and faithful assemble. But these attempts are turned by the Lord to advantage, and are made to end in the clearer perception and fuller confirmation of the truth. And such is the result of all the doubtings and reasonings of our rebellious selfhood, if we are faithful to the Lord and to our own best interests. The questions here raised by the Pharisees, and answered by the Lord, are of great importance as general principles, and deserve our most serious attention. The question about the law of divorce has already been considered in ch. v. 31, where the Lord himself introduces the subject. It is only necessary here to notice the opinion and practice in the Jewish church which gave rise to the present question. As Moses assigned no precise cause of divorce, it came to be a question among

the Jews of a later period what were the legitimate causes of divorce, or whether a man might not put away his wife for any cause whatever. The difference of opinion on this question came to be represented by two distinct schools of divinity among the Jews, one of which restricted the causes of divorce to what was scandalous and dishonourable, while the other held the husband's displeasure to be a sufficient reason. When the Pharisees came to the Lord it was to hear which of these opinions he maintained.

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4, 5. When the Lord answered the Pharisees he did not so much as notice their opinions and disputes, he did not even go back to Moses to point out the true meaning of the law on which their different opinions rested. Instead of referring to the temporary law of divorce, he went back to the primeval law of marriage, and showed that both creation and the law of the Creator rendered the bond of marriage indissoluble, except for one cause. Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh? These divine words establish marriage on its original and true foundation. The man and the woman were created for each other, and their union was designed to be spiritual, like their nature, and eternal, like their existence. Of all God's creatures man only was formed in his image and likeness. His image and likeness are stamped upon his whole nature and constitution. And as God in the beginning made them male and female, the Divine image has a profound reference to the characteristic difference on which their union rests. The man may be said to have been created in the image of God, and the woman in his likeness. The double resemblance in which man is said to have been formed can only be understood when it is known that God in his essence is Love itself and Wisdom itself, and that man was created to be a recipient of love and wisdom from God. God's wisdom in man makes him God's image; God's love in man makes him God's likeness. In order that male and female might be so closely united as to be "no more twain, but one flesh," the man was created to be an image of God and the woman to be a likeness: in other words, the man was created to be a recipient and a form of God's wisdom, and the woman to be a recipient and a form of his love. And as love and wisdom in God are perfectly united, so love in the woman and wisdom in the man were designed to become so intimately united as to be spiritually and eternally one-the image of the union of Love and Wisdom in God. The image in the man and the likeness in the woman aspire after union.