tion, as referred to the locality of Judæa, the birthplace of Christianity, but in greater or less proximity of relation to the author of Christianity, our Lord and Saviour himself. In their collective capacity, they made up the aggregate of mankind, which admitted of no other division than into these three comprehensive members, as such. The Jews in their political and religious character, constituted one class; the Samaritans, so far as they agreed with the Jews in some things, and differed from them in others, constituted a second; and the Gentiles in general, so far as they agreed with neither but differed from both, constituted the rest.

Between the execution of the mandate to the guests of the first order, and the mission of the servants to those of the second, there was a determinate interval of time; and between the execution of the errand to the guests of the second order, and the command to bring in those of the third, there was another; but the time taken up, or likely to be taken up, in the execution of the last command, was evidently more indeterminate, and likely to be of greater extent, than that of the other two. There was an interval not less finite, between the commencement of the first publication of the gospel to the Jews, and the extension of its offer to the Samaritans; and between the extension of this offer to the Samaritans, and its communication to the Gentiles; the length of which interval may be determined from the history in the Acts, and appears to have been in either case the same s. But the offer of the gospel once beginning to be made to the Gen

s Vide my Diss. vol. i. Diss. xiii. p. 525-577.

tiles-the business of completing that, and so bringing in the guests of the third order, in sufficient numbers, has been going on ever since, and is not yet accomplished.

No fourth overture was made to guests of any description, differing from those of the third order as these had differed from those of the second, or as both had differed from those of the first: nor when the offer of the gospel had once been transferred from the Jews to the Samaritans, and from the Samaritans had been extended to the Gentiles, that is, from a part of mankind to the whole-could it, in the nature of things, admit of any further extension. The Gentiles must comprehend all who were not either Samaritans or Jews: as the guests of the third order included all who did not belong to the second or to the first.

The two commands to the guests of the first order and of the second, respectively, were both issued and executed, within the details of the history itself; the message to those of the third was issued, but not completed, before the parable came to an end. The offer of the gospel not being to be made to the Gentiles, until it had been tendered to the Samaritans, nor to the Samaritans, until it had been proposed to the Jews; the business of evangelizing both these latter communities, must either have been fully over, or at least, sufficiently carried into effect to answer the end designed by it, before that of evangelizing the Gentiles could begin. As Judæa and Samaria, too, were not only distinct, but finite portions of the world, the process of preaching the gospel, however extensively, in those quarters, was comparatively capable of a speedy completion, and

certainly, within a determinate interval of time; but the countries of the Gentiles, which comprehended the whole world besides, could not so soon be visited in succession, and explored. Besides which, the silence of the parable respecting the fulfilment of this last order, though not about the commencement of its execution, as referred to the historical moral of the account, which was the transfer of the invitation, with the virtual privilege of partaking, as guests, in a certain solemnity, from one order of persons to another, but not the celebration of the solemnity with any, or the ratification of their privilege to any—is in strict accordance with the matter of fact, which answers to it. If the fulness of the Gentiles is not yet come in, the command which enjoined the assemblage of the third order of guests, might be described in the history as given, and as begun to be executed consistently with the state of the case; but not as accomplished or carried into complete effect.

The guests of the first order were distinguished from those of the third, and possibly from those of the second, in being the personal friends, and fellowcitizens of the principal personage: and the Jews were discriminated both from Samaritans and Gentiles, in being the kinsmen of Christ according to the flesh, and in possessing a nearer and livelier interest in the Messiah himself, as first and principally sent to them-than any others of the nations of the world could have. The original invitation to these guests embraced all the personal friends and fellow-townsmen of the master of the feast; which was, in all probability, the whole of the inhabitants, of a certain rank and consequence, which his city could furnish: and the whole people of the Jews

were comprehended in the design and purport of the Christian scheme, as primarily and properly addressed to them. Unto them, and unto their children, according to the apostlet, were the promises both made by the prophets originally, and confirmed by the preaching of the Messiah, and of his emissaries, at last.

The guests of the second order stood distinguished from those of the third, either in being natives of the city of their host, and consequently his fellowtownsmen; or at least as living in its streets and lanes, and therefore in being inhabitants of it, as well as he, and the guests of the first order themselves. The Samaritans, who dwelt in a part of the country which had formerly belonged to the ten tribes; and from the time of their original settlement there, contained more or less of an admixture even of the blood of the ancient Israelites", were in some sense kinsmen of the Jews; and on different occasions in the history of the two communities, when they found it for their temporal advantage to claim a relationship with them, they were not slow to do sox. From the time of John Hyrcanus, the

t Acts ii. 39.

X

" Vide 2 Kings xvii. 6-41.

Joseph. Ant. Jud. xi. viii. 6: elơì yàp oi Zaμapeîs toloûtol tηy φύσιν . . . . ἐν μὲν ταῖς συμφοραῖς ὄντας τοὺς Ἰουδαίους ἀρνοῦνται συγγενεῖς ἔχειν, ὁμολογοῦντες τότε τὴν ἀλήθειαν. ὅταν δέ τι περὶ αὐτοὺς λαμπρὸν ἴδωσιν ἐκ τύχης, ἐξαίφνης ἐπιπηδῶσιν αὐτῶν τῇ κοινωνίᾳ, προσήκειν αὐτοῖς λέγοντες, καὶ ἐκ τῶν Ἰωσήπου γενεαλογοῦντες αὐτοὺς ἐκγόνων Εφραίμου καὶ Μανασσού.

Justin. M. Apologia i. 78. 24: τὰ μὲν γὰρ ἄλλα πάντα γένη ἀνθρώπεια ὑπὸ τοῦ προφητικοῦ πνεύματος καλεῖται ἔθνη, τὸ δὲ Ἰουδαϊκὸν καὶ Σαμαρειτικὸν φύλον, Ἰσραὴλ καὶ οἶκος Ἰακὼβ κέκληνται-Dialog. 159. 7: Ισραηλιτικὸν γὰρ τὸ ἀληθινὸν, πνευματικὸν, καὶ Ἰούδα γένος, καὶ Ἰακώβ, καὶ Ἰσαάκ, καὶ ̓Αβραὰμ, τοῦ ἐν ἀκροβυστίᾳ ἐπὶ τῇ πίστει

most successful and powerful of the Asmonæan or Maccabæan princes, by whom their rival temple on Gerizim was destroyed, and their nation subjected to the Jews, they might be said to have been so completely proselyted as not to differ, perhaps, from the inhabitants of Judæa Proper, in their day, more than their predecessors in the kingdom of Israel, had done in theirs. As settled, at least, in the Holy Land, and as contiguous to the Jews-whether of Galilee or of Judæa Proper-they might be said in the language of the parable, to be living in the streets and lanes of the city both of their host, and of his fellow-townsmen; which no other distinct community but theirs, could be said to do.

The guests of the first order alone were persons of wealth and substance, and in point of external rank and consequence, in some respect on a par with their host. Now the superior advantages in the external situation of this order, as contrasted with the destitution and indigence of the rest, may be understood to consist generally, in the possession of certain privileges or blessings by the one, and in the want of them by the other; which so far as the privileges and blessings themselves were intrinsically valuable and desirable, would make their possessors rich in a certain respect, and their non-possessors poor in the same. This being the case; such pri

μαρτυρηθέντος ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ εὐλογηθέντος, καὶ πατρὸς πολλῶν ἐθνῶν κληθέντος, ἡμεῖς ἐσμεν, κ, τ. λ. Ibid. 187. 25: τὰ δὲ ἔθνη τὰ πιστεύσαντα εἰς αὐτὸν, καὶ μετανοήσαντα ἐφ ̓ οἷς ἥμαρτον, αὐτοὶ κληρονομήσουσι μετὰ τῶν πατριαρχῶν, καὶ τῶν προφητῶν, καὶ τῶν δικαίων, ὅσοι ἀπὸ Ἰακὼβ γεγέννηνται· εἰ καὶ μὴ σαββατίζουσι, μηδὲ περιτέ μνονται, μηδὲ τὰς ἑορτὰς φυλάσσουσι, πάντως κληρονομήσουσι τὴν ἁγίαν τοῦ Θεοῦ κληρονομίαν.