no promises or threatnings but what were temporal.

If they had the idea of no Religion befides the law, they could not have the doctrine of a future ftate. If they had the idea of another system, then the calling of the Gentiles could be a mystery in no fenfe at all, as the Jews must have known that the Law was only intended to be fubfervient to the introduction of a new and better Covenant.

rary

And here let the patrons of the common fyftem tell us, whether the typical fenfe of the Law was opened to, or concealed from, the Jewish church. If it was concealed, the doctrine of life and immortality must have been a fecret, while this fenfe remained under a veil or cover. If it was opened, the tempoand preparatory nature of the Law muft have been opened too; and confequently its ceffation, and the exemption of the Gentiles from its rites and ceremonies, could not have been a mystery. We must therefore either fuppofe with the author of the D. L. that the doctrine of life and immortality was a mystery, or suppose that the calling of the Gentiles was no mystery, in direct contradiction to St. Paul.

The promise of life and immortality, attached to the new Covenant, was evidently unfit for the knowledge of the ancient Jews.

For it would have taught them that their Religion was only a meagre element, or shadowy type of a more perfect and excellent Inftitution; and that between the letter of the Law and the spirit of the Gospel there was an irreconcileable difference. All this, attended with the knowledge that the Gentiles were to be admitted by a new and better Covenant into the number of God's people on the fame footing with themselves, without going through the purgatory of the Law, would have so enflamed their prejudices against it, as to make the intermediate fubjection to it a thing impoffible.

However, Mr. Locke often declares, that the mystery mentioned by St. Paul means the exemption of the Gentiles from the rites and ceremonies of the Law, or their admiffion to the new covenant, without becoming profelytes to Judaism *.

Now if this exemption of the Gentiles, and the ceffation of the Law, were a mystery, they could only be fo, because the spiritual nature of the Gospel, or its promise of life and immortality, was not yet revealed. For had the Jews been apprized that the Law was only intended to be a preparatory fyftem, or fubfervient to the introduction of a more excellent

See his notes on St. Paul's Epiftles.

and

and perfect mode of worship, of which it had been typical and figurative, neither the ceffation, nor exemption above-mentioned, could have been a mystery among them.

We cannot therefore fuppofe, that these things were a mystery, if we transfer the revelation of a future ftate, the effential article of the Gospel, to the ages before, and under the Law.

Let us next confider in what manner the calling of the Gentiles is fet forth and described by the ancient prophets. "In that

day fhall there be an ALTAR to the Lord "in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a PILLAR at the border thereof unto the Lord.

"And the Lord shall be known to Egypt, " and the Egyptians fhall know the Lord in "that day, and fhall do SACRIFICE and "OBLATION, yea they shall vow a vow unto "the Lord, and fhall perform it t

"

"Also the fons of the stranger, even them "will I bring to my HOLY MOUNTAIN, and "make them joyful in MY HOUSE OF PRAYER, "their BURNT OFFERINGS fhall be accepted

upon MINE ALTAR, for MINE HOUSE fhall "be called a house of prayer to all people "."

The calling of the Gentiles could be no more a mystery than the calling of the Jews, Isaiah xix. 19, 20, 21. Ibid, lvi, 7.

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fince

fince the one was as plainly foretold as the other; or the Gentiles were reprefented as being partakers of the fame covenant with the Jews, and as ftanding in the fame relation to the one true God after their converfion. For they are described as performing the fame facrifices, oblations, and religious fervices, in the fame tabernacle or house of God *.

The only circumftance therefore in this calling of the Gentiles, which was myfterious or hidden in these prophecies, was the fpiritual nature and genius of the new covenant, into which they were to be admitted. And this feems to have been delivered mysteriously enough, fince the new covenant is described under fuch terms and images as were proper and peculiar to the old; or is represented as confifting of those rites, ceremonies, obfervances, and places of worship prescribed by the Law.

Let me afk, then, whether the spiritual sense of these prophecies was fecreted from, or revealed to, the ancient Jews. If it was fecreted, the calling of the Jews to the life

Here then is another proof, that the calling of the Gentiles could not be confidered by St. Paul as a mystery in oppofition to the calling of the Jews. For there could be no room to fuppofe any fuch oppofition, fince the first are reprefented as joining in the fame common worship with the laft under the new dispensation.

and

and immortality offered in the Gospel, muft have been as much a mystery, as the calling of the Gentiles to that bleffing. If the fpiritual fenfe was revealed, the calling of the Gentiles to the religion of Jefus, without a previous fubmiffion to the Law, could have been no more a mystery than the calling of the Jews to the religion of Moses.

It may be faid, that the prophecies which foretel that all nations fhould come and worship at Jerufalem, were a fufficient declaration that a spiritual religion was to take place under the Meffiah, and to fucceed the rites and ceremonies of the Law which were then to be repealed. But if fo, what becomes of the mystery in question ?

y Dr. Warburton had faid, the life and immortality revealed by Jefus Chrift, was the mystery of the Gospel mentioned by St. Paul. A late writer would explain this myftery in another manner, "That multitudes of Gentiles "fhould one day forfakę idolatry, and be converted to "the worship of God; this could fcarcely be unknown, "after the prophets had faid fo much about it; but that "the Gentiles fhould become God's people without being "made profelytes to Judaifm, and that the ceremonial "law fhould be antiquated, this was not fo clearly de"clared as to be understood before the event explained "it." Mr. Fortin's Difcourfes on the Chriftian Religion, p. 98.

It is ftrange this learned perfon fhould affect to differ from Dr. Warburton in his account of this mystery, fince he fuppofes with him that the promife of life and immortality was not revealed in the writings of Mofes and the

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Mr.