ment which will precede the transition of the visible into the invisible church, will be conducted by the head of the church, who stands in a common relation to both, as the head of the one, in its state of probation, and that of the other, in its state of exaltation; and the subjects of this judgment will be the members of his visible church. The review of the assembled company was either directed to a personal object, or followed by a personal effect, as concerned the guests; viz. that of discriminating a part of the company-all standing beforehand in the common capacity of guests invited-from another; the part which required to be admitted, from that which required to be denied admission, to the ultimate enjoyment of the feast: and the judgment of the members of his visible church, by its head, at the close of the œconomy of their probation, will produce the same personal effect upon them, in separating a part from the rest; the members or congregation of the resulting and invisible church, from the members or complex of the preexisting and visible church.

The test which distinguished the guest who had been simply invited, from the guest who was ultimately admitted, to the enjoyment of the feast, was the absence of a garment proper for the occasion, in the one instance, and its presence, in the other: and the test which must discriminate the future member of the invisible church, from the present member of the visible, must be that qualification, whatever it be, which ought to be the characteristic of the professed member of the visible church, at all times of its present existence in its preparatory state of probation, and cannot fail to be the distinguishing attri

bute and quality of the member of the invisible, in its resulting state of retribution. Nor, without stopping to insist on the general conformity which is bound to subsist between the lives and professions of all the members of a society like that of the visible church-if we consider that the qualification of the guest in the parable is the possession of a dress proper for the occasion-and that occasion is the marriage feast of the king's son-the meaning of which figure, when translated into strict propriety of speech, is the consummation of the mystical union between Christ, as the Head of the church, and true believers, as the members of the same; we shall not err in concluding that this one qualification, denoted by the wedding-garment, must be the mystical bond of union which attaches the members to the Head of his body, the church-the faith of the true believer in his Lord and Master, Christ. This proper garment was to be furnished indeed from the vestry of the king, but its assumption depended on the guests themselves; and even faith, though the one thing necessary to salvation, and in its imputed efficacy, singly sufficient for that purpose, is not independent of the freewill and cooperation of the believer, no more than of the grace of God. It may be the proper spiritual covering of the soul, and neither of mortal texture, nor of human acquisition, but immediately derived from the wardrobes of heaven; and yet it must be received, and put on, by the wearer for himself. The virtue of the marriage-garment in the parable was such, that no antecedent worthiness of the guest invited, without it, could entitle him to a place as a guest admitted to that feast; and with it no antecedent unfitness availed to exclude him from

it and it is of the essence of the Christian qualification of a saving faith, to level all distinctions of character in other respects, to compensate for all other deficiencies in particular instances, and to entitle every one who is allowed the benefit of it, to the same kind and degree of acceptance, on the same grounds of imputed righteousness and good desert. Without it, no previous excellence of man's own acquisition can avail to salvation, and with it, no moral defect, under which the subject himself might previously labour, presents any obstacle to his forgiveness, and his acceptance with God. This garment was the same in every guest, admitted, by its means, to the feast; and the qualification of a saving faith is one and the same, in the principle from which it springs, in the effect which it produces, and in the object of trust, on which it is placedin every member of the visible church, who becomes entitled thereby to the relation of a member of the invisible. It is grounded in an equal reliance on the merits of their Saviour, in all; and it produces a common effect, their common acceptance and salvation, by virtue of a common imputed righteousness, in all. All among the guests assembled, who were admitted to the feast, were admitted because they possessed this garment; and all who were excluded from it, were excluded because they possessed it not: and among the complex of the members of the visible church, none will be saved who do not possess the personal quality of a saving faith, and none will be condemned, who do not want it. It is the only criterion between the nominal and the real Christian, considered as equally members of the same visible church here, which by its effects on their lives and

actions, as it is present or absent, separates them one from another in this life, and at the day of judgment, when their lives and their actions will be inquired into, and measured by the standard of their duties and their professions-it is the only thing which by virtue of its presence or of its absence, will determine their respective conditions through all eternity.

The Book of Revelation, which in the scope of its delineations of the future, has comprehended the consummation of all things, and the celebration of the nuptial solemnities of the Lamb and his true church, had in view such a marriage vesture as this, when it described the new Jerusalem, the emblem of that church, in the act of descending from heaven as the spouse of the Lamb, clothed in a linen garment, white and fine; which it interpreted to mean the "justifications" of the saints". It had the same idea in view, when it represented the Lamb, going forth from heaven as a conqueror, followed by armies clothed in white robes; and again, when it described the innumerable company of all saints, clothed in white robes, and with palms in their hands; and again, when it spake of those, who had washed their clothes, and made them white and clean in the blood of the Lamb 9. Under each of these images, one and the same idea is meant to be expressed, that of a lively faith and trust in Christ, as the one thing needful to salvation. This is the imputed righteousness, and consequent perfection of the saints, which clothes and adorns the mystical bride. This is the uniform of the heavenly legions, which discriminates the soldiers of Christ, from the folChap. xix. 11-14. P Chap. vii. 9.

n Rev. xix. 8. 9 Chap. vii. 14.

lowers and retainers of darkness; and qualifies them to fight the good fight under the banners of the Lamb. This is that presence vesture, which ushers the saints to the throne of grace, and renders them meet to stand before the Majesty of heaven. This is that true laver, and source of purity, which more effectual than the fuller's earth, or the refiner's fire, purges away every stain of mortal frailty, and instead of the natural nakedness, and ingrained impurity of the human soul, invests it with a robe of glory-as characteristic of its innocence, whiter than the snows of Salmon-as the badge of its acceptance, and as the emblem of its exaltation, richer than the purples of Tyre and Sidon.

In almost every language, the permanent qualities, the habitudes, and dispositions of the moral or the intellectual part of human nature—are expressed by terms which either generally or specially understood-would imply them to be the garb or vesture of their proper subjects, as much as the dress or clothing, in the ordinary sense of the word, is of the body. We need not wonder then, that the weddinggarment in the parable is employed as the image to characterise that qualification of the true Christian's soul, which is the permanent principle, resident within him; which by influencing the whole tenor of his life and conversation, discriminates even now the heir of salvation, and the future member of the invisible church, from the mere nominal professor of the name of Christ; which even now mystically unites him to the whole body of the faithful, in the same communion of faith and love, under one object of each; and will hereafter make him one both with the Head of this body, and with his fellow-members