could be qualified to render his account, or to answer for every particular circumstance of his former existence, in thought, word, or deed; as every one in the day of judgment, will be required to answer for himself.

The discovery of their own imprudence by the foolish virgins, and of the superior wisdom and foresight of their companions, to which they had been insensible before, while their lamps were continuing to burn with the original supply of oil, was necessarily made, though for the first time, at this critical moment, when their lamps having gone on burning while they were not required, were beginning to fail, just as they were wanted, and to preserve their flame from utter extinction, needed a speedy supply of oil from some other quarter: as when the external profession of Christianity ceases to continue-that is, when the duration of the merely visible church, and of the œconomy of probation, is at an end, and the transition of the visible into the invisible church is about to take place—those who have never been conscious of the necessity of something more to their personal acceptance with their Lord and Master, than the name and profession of believers in him, or though conscious of it, have shut their eyes to that salutary conviction-cannot remain under the same delusion any longer. They may wilfully disguise from themselves the fact of their dangerous situation, or from a variety of causes they may be blinded to the perception of so disagreeable a truth, in the present life; but they cannot continue insensible to it, nor avoid the discovery of their danger, even if they would, in the next: and whatsoever cause it may have been which prevented them from making, or indisposed them to profit by so necessary a discovery,

while they were yet in their proper state of trial, with the means and opportunities of working out their own salvation, still graciously provided them, and placed in their power; the obstruction must be removed, the mist which clouded their eyes must be dissipated, when they are standing in the presence of their Judge, and called upon to give an account of that trial, to answer for the use of those means and opportunities themselves.

The discovery of their original oversight, which was consequently now made-the request which they prefer, as the effect of the discovery, for the gift of a little of the oil of their companions-the conduct of the wise virgins in declining that request, and the grounds upon which their refusal is placed-the departure of the foolish, as their only remaining alternative, to procure what they wanted from those who sold, if possible in time to retain their place in the nuptial procession; the consequence of that departure, at the critical juncture when the nuptial procession was close at hand-all which are circumstances so connected together, as to lead to one result, the admission of the wise virgins to the festivity, and the exclusion of the unwise ones from it, at the end of all, after each had been waiting so long in the common expectation of partaking of it, previously-referred to the particulars of such a transaction as the process of the final judgment of Christians, may adumbrate the following truths: first, that nominal Christians, whose lives have never corresponded to the principles and obligations of their profession, shall have nothing to trust to, in the hour of need, but the name and title of Christians; and discovering then for the first time, the

extreme folly of their former inconsistency—the insufficiency and hopelessness of so foolish and desperate a trust-shall vainly lament that they did not imitate the example of their wiser brethren, and profit by the means of salvation, in the day of grace, as they had done.

Again, that the personal fortune and disposal of every Christian at the day of doom, will strictly depend upon his personal conduct in this life. Every one must answer for himself, and stand or fall by his own deserts, and according to his own claims to acceptance. There was not oil enough to divide between the wise and the foolish, and to serve the necessity of both; that is, nothing which Christians, whether nominal or real, in the present state of their probation, possess in common, and might avail themselves of in common, can procure the salvation of either. The external profession of Christianity, and the privileges simply entailed by that profession, would be equally ineffectual for both; and as to the grounds of the personal acceptance of either, distinctly from the other-the utmost which the good can accomplish by all their diligence and all their perseverance, even in their own behalf, is barely sufficient for themselves; much less for any besides. "No man can make atonement for his bro

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ther, for it cost more to redeem his own soul; so "that he must let that alone for ever." No man can cause the merit of his own righteousness to be imputed to another; but even to justify his own, and to give it any right or title to acceptance, he must rest the merit of his righteousness upon some other ground than its own intrinsic perfection.

Again, that the discovery of the folly of former

conduct the regret for the loss of opportunities long gone by—sorrow, remorse, or compunction for past sins-resolutions of amendment, or efforts of reformation, which begin to be felt, or to be attempted first, under such desperate circumstances as these, are all preposterous and useless. They are too late to remedy the evil, and calculated only to add to the bitterness of its effects. When the time of retribution is come, the season of probation is over; and when the period of probation is at an end, the consequences of past negligence are irretrievable. The present life, then, is the accepted time, and the day of salvation; within which, short as it is at the longest, and shorter as it may become in a variety of ways, both the good and the bad are accorded all the trial, which they are ever to expect. He who neglects the opportunities of this brief space, neglects what will never be placed in his power again; and he who abuses the present day of salvation-by the abuse of a momentary span, and of means critically adapted to their proper end, hazards the interests of eternity, and may forfeit the happiness of an endless futurity.

Again, the separation which is thus effected of one half of the same company from the other, is a separation made for the first time now; as the first open distinction between the good and the bad, between the real and the merely seeming and nominal, in the same society of professing Christians, will be made at the day of judgment—and like that of the virgins, will be made according to the difference of their personal characters, as evidenced by the different lives and conduct of each. The separation was effected by the coming of the bridegroom, and the

state of preparation for that event in which it found the parties, professing to be waiting for it, at the time; as the discrimination of one class of nominal Christians from another, will be made by the return of Christ, and by the state of readiness in which it will find the members of his church, before and at the time of the event. This separation once made, was never undone; nor were the foolish virgins again admitted into the same society with the wise, after being once excluded from it: and the separation of the nominal from the real members of the church, once made at the consummation of all things, and as the result of the process of inquiry previously instituted into the lives and conduct of each, is equally final and perpetual. The last effect of the separation was to leave the wise virgins in the enjoyment of the nuptial feast, and the unwise in a state of exclusion from it; to confirm, consequently, their original invitation to the one, and to render their privilege of guests at the feast, thenceforward inalienable from them-while it annulled it to the other for ever, and rendered the recovery of it impossible: as the final disposal of the good, after the day of judgment, will be to leave them in the enjoyment of their everlasting reward within the kingdom of heaven; the final doom of the wicked, after the same event, will be to leave them not merely in a state of perpetual exclusion from the happiness of the good-which would be only a negative evil-but in a state of condemnation to some proper punishment peculiar to themselves; which is the positive misery that must fall to their loty.

y The parable of the wedding-garment, which resembles the parable of the virgins in a variety of circumstances, almost too