Page images
PDF
EPUB

covenant, was a mystery, which had been kept fecret and hidden from the beginning of the world?

If then we should agree to limit this myftery to the calling of the Gentiles, we shall ftill make strange havock and confusion in the common fyftem, as it's advocates will be obliged to give up the three prophecies abovementioned, which have ever been confidered as the grand palladium of their cause.

St. Paul tells the Gentiles, that their falvation had been promised before the law. If we afk, where we are to look for fuch a promife, we are referred to the prophecies which declare that the feed of the woman fhall bruise the ferpent's head; and that all the nations of the earth fhall be bleffed in one of the defcendants of Abraham. And if we should again ask, how the falvation of the Gentiles could be a mystery, if it was foretold in thefe prophecies; must not the patrons of the common fyftem fay, that the ancient Jews did not fee into the spiritual sense of these prophecies, or their relation to a future ftate?

Dr. Rutherforth has employed much pains to prove, that the promise of the redemption of all mankind by the Son of God was revealed to the Patriarchs, and made the princiEffay on Virtue, c. II.

m

pal

[ocr errors]

pal bafis and foundation of the Religion of those times m. However, he maintains likewise, that "the mystery of the Gospel does not mean the knowledge "of a future life then firft "communicated to mankind, but the calling of the Gentiles in particular, to be to be par"takers of God's promises in Christ "." Now let me afk, if the calling of all the nations of the world in general had been so clearly revealed to the Patriarchs, how could the calling of the Gentiles in particular be deemed a mystery?

If he will beftow upon the body of the faithful in the patriarchal ages, the knowledge of the redemption of mankind, he must mean all mankind, or he quibbles and prevaricates: And then what becomes of the myftery of the Gofpel mentioned by St. Paul?

It has been faid, the admiffion of the Gentiles into the chriftian church, without conforming to the law of Mofes, was this mystery. But this refinement, as refinements often do, leaves all fenfe and meaning behind it. For the falvation of all mankind was promised and revealed many ages before the inftitution of the Law, if it was, as these men say, promifed and revealed in the prophecies aboveAnd in these ages the diftinction

mentioned.

And in thefe

a Ib. p. 383.

between

between Jew and Gentile was not in being: or rather the objects of that distinction did not yet exist. It was therefore impoffible that a promise, made to be understood by those to whom it was given, should have any reference or allufion to People not yet exifting, or to a Law not yet in being, and which was at laft only thruft in by way of interim, or added becaufe of tranfgreffions till the feed should come °. If therefore the faithful, who lived when these Prophecies were given, had a revelation of the falvation of all mankind, antecedently to, and independently of, the Law; they must neceffarily have had a revelation of the grand mystery, which, according to St. Paul, was referved for the Gospel.

My Lord Bishop affirms, that the Jews had frequent and early notice, that the Law was to cease, and be repealed, after the introduction of the new covenant P. How then could the admiffion of the Gentiles, without any previous fubjection to the Law, be styled a mystery, if both this admiffion, and the ceffation of the Law, had been plainly revealed in the Old Testament?

Thus his Lordship leaves no mystery at all, concerning the calling of the Gentiles, for the Gospel to disclose; it having been before

• Gal. iii. 19. P Difcourfes on Prophecy, p. 163, &c.

revealed,

revealed, not only that the Gentiles were to be partakers of the new covenant, but that they were to be partakers of it without any previous conformity and fubmiffion to the Law.

If the doctrine of redemption and a future ftate was the foundation of the patriarchal Religion, the patriarchal and chriftian Covenant must have been one and the fame. Confequently the doctrine of univerfal redemption, or the redemption of all mankind on the very fame terms and conditions, was fo far from being a mystery or fecret referved to be revealed by the religion of Jefus, that it was the fundamental article of the religion of the Patriarchs.

The faithful of thofe early times having no notion of the diftinction between the Jews and the Gentiles, must have seen all mankind, without exception, invited to partake of the benefits of this Redemption upon the very fame terms and conditions with themfelves. Therefore neither the calling of any part of mankind to the Gospel, nor the terms and conditions on which they were to be called, could be a mystery in this age and feafon of the world.

You will fay, perhaps, that the calling of the Gentiles commenced a mystery after the giving of the Law. If you you do, you will say nothing to the purpose: for St. Paul is here

fpeaking

fpeaking of a doctrine, which he reprefents as having been a mystery from the beginning of the world, or in the ages preceding the Law, before the distinction between Jew and Gentile was in being. In this fenfe my Lord Bifhop interprets St. Paul, and interprets him very rightly, as appears from fome parallel places.

But further; on the principles of the common fyftem, it could be no more a mystery, after the law was given, and this distinction took place, than it had been, before. For if the promise of a prophet, like to Mofes, was given to inform and affure the Jews, that their law was to be antiquated and set aside, or if its period and diffolution was foretold at the very time of its inftitution; here would have been a plain prophecy, that the Gentiles were to have the offer of the Gospel on the fame terms with the Jews.

On

The Jews were either taught to confider the Law as a perfect Religion, and confequently a whole and entire difpenfation; or as only the introduction to one more excellent. the first fuppofition they could have no revelation of a future ftate, fince it seems to be agreed on all hands, that the Law continued

Sermon 3d, vol. i. p. 132, 133.

* Difcourfes on Prophecy, 163, 164, &c.

no

« PreviousContinue »