parables, for delineating the last Judgment generally looked for by Christians. Thus, he concludes the parable of the wheat and the tares with this declaration: "In the time of the harvest, I will say unto the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." (Ch. xiii. 30.) This the Divine Speaker himself explains to be a figurative description of the Last Judgment still generally expected: "The good seed," he says, "are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one:—the harvest is the consummation of the age:—as therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be at the consummation of the age. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Ver. 38–43.) Now the only difference between this parable and the saying above quoted of John, is, that in the parable, the wicked are compared to tares, and by the Baptist to chaff: in other respects, the figures used are the same. In both, the good are compared to wheat; in both, the taking of the good into heaven is called the gathering of the wheat into the Lord's garner or barn: in both, the casting of the wicked into hell is called burning the chaff, or tares, with fire. Jesus says that this work should be performed at the consummation of the age, or at the close of the dispensation of divine things then commencing; accordingly, all allow that the parable relates to the Last Judgment: but John says that Jesus, of whom he was speaking, had his fan in his hand, to make the requisite separation then: Is it not then demonstrably evident, that such a judgment as the scripture predicts at what is commonly called the end of the world, or at the consummation of the dispensation then commencing, is affirmed by the Scripture to have been actually wrought while the Lord was in the world;—that time being also the end of the world or the consummation of the age, to the Jewish Church, and to the whole remains of the Noetic Church likewise? If the Scripture affirms that a General Judgment was to be performed by the Lord at his second coming in the spirit, it affirms, with equal positiveness, that a General Judgment was performed at his first coming in the flesh. The one rests upon the same authority as the other; and if we deny one, we must deny both.
But not only does John the Baptist announce, that He, before whom he was sent, was coming to perform a work ofPage:The Judgment Day.pdf/187
