have continued ever since under visible marks of divine displeasure. Yet they perform to this day the office, to which they were at first appointed, of bearing witness to true religion: being preserved a distinct people though dispersed through the world, for so long a time, as no one besides from the creation ever was, in like circumstances; and demonstrating all the while the uncorruptness of those books, in which both they and we believe, and from which, in a great measure, we prove the truth of our religion, against themselves, as well as other infidels. Nor is this the whole service of the same kind, to which they are destined. For in God's good time, they shall give a new and illustrious, (and who knows how seasonable?) attention to Christianity, by their conversion; and the receiving of them again into the church shall be as life from the dead*. For so their own prophets have foretold, that God will pour on them the spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and shall mourn: and in that day shall be a fountain opened to them for sin and for uncleanness: they shall call on his name, and he will hear them: he will say, it is my people; and they shall say, the Lord is my Godt. Thus I have given you, I hope, a sufficient vindication of the divine justice and goodness in distinguishing the Jews by a peculiar covenant. And now I proceed, II. To speak concerning the expiration of the covenant and its ceasing to oblige or avail any part of mankind. You will naturally understand me to mean, that such things only ceased, as were peculiar to the Mosaic dispensation: whether ceremonies in * Rom. xi. 15. VOL. III. R Zech. xii. 10. xiii. 1. 9. religion, or methods of proceeding in civil government. For what all men were bound to before the law of Moses, they were certainly bound to, afterwards. And wherever that law was merely an explanation of the law of nature, the explanation was a just and authorized one, and ought to be followed by as many, as come to the knowledge of it. But the Jewish converts to Christianity, who were the first it had, and, though not the majority of that people, yet a large number, were inclined to carry the matter much farther than this. They were indeed humble and reasonable enough to receive Jesus for the Messiah: but still they were proud enough to think, that he was sent only to themselves. Accordingly the Apostles for some time preached the Gospel to none, but their own nation. And when St. Peter was satisfied by a vision from Heaven of the duty of doing otherwise, they that were of the circumcision blamed him for what he had done: till, having an account laid before them of the authority he went upon, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life*. But when this difficulty was over, another very great one was immediately started; whether he had granted it on any other terms, than their observing the Jewish law on which point was held a council at Jerusalem, as you may read, Acts xv. where after the matter had been thoroughly debated, the Apostles, elders, and brethren, directed by the Holy Ghost, unanimously determined, that since the Jews had never been able to keep their own law in strictness and therefore could not themselves be saved, but through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; and since the Gentiles, without the law, had not only been purified by the same faith, but had received the same * Acts xi. 18. gifts of the Holy Ghost, with the Jews; this was evidence enough, that they were accepted in their present condition, as the prophets had intimated they should, and therefore it was needless and unjust to lay a new yoke upon them, which they had never been enjoined before to undertake, nor would be able to bear now. But even after this, one doubt remained still, whether the Jews at least ought not to continue observing their own law. For it had been declared in the Old Testament an ordinance to endure for ever*. And our Saviour himself had not only, pursuant to its directions, been circumcised in his infancy, but throughout his life was obedient to every precept of the Mosaic covenant: and therefore it might seem requisite, that all his disciples of that nation should be so too. Now considering this notion immediately and openly, must, considering how fond the Jews were of their religious ceremonies, have proved a great hindrance to their embracing the faith of Christ. And therefore he did not apprise his very Apostles clearly at first of his whole intention, as to these matters; but told them, that he had many things to say unto them, which then they could not bear; but that when the spirit of truth shall come, he would guide them into all truth †. And after they were more fully instructed, they exercised great prudence and patience towards their countrymen: permitting, and even practising along with them, for a while, what they knew to be unnecessary; and gently loosening their deeply-rooted prejudices. For, when examined with care, they will evidently appear to be nothing more than prejudices. The phrase, for ever, used concerning the continuance of the law, is used in * Exod. xii. 14, &c. 1 John xvi. 12, 13. that law itself concerning very small periods of time; the term of a man's life, the term of fifty years and less in short, it means no more, than this; that what is appointed shall be done, so long as the state of things, to which the appointment refers, shall last. And, therefore, notwithstanding such words; when circumstances visibly alter, God may as justly and as wisely repeal any of his laws, as men do many of theirs, into which the same, and like words, have been inserted. Now the coming of Christ made a most evident and material alteration. It was indeed very fit, that to shew himself perfectly obedient, and prevent all possibility of cavil against him on that head, he should fulfil the whole righteousness of the covenant, under which he was born. But when he had exhibited the substance of those good things, of which the legal ceremonies were shadows; and completed all that the Mosaic dispensation prefigured, one great end of its existence plainly ceased. When men were grown capable, as God saw they were by that time, of a freer, and more spiritual, and manly service, instead of those formal restraints to keep them from going wrong, and those outward carnal ordinances to strike their imaginations, under which they had been placed in the earlier ages, compared by the Apostle to a state of childhood *: then a second design of the law ceased. And when the time came, in which God judged it proper, that the Jews, who had been distinguished from the Gentiles to preserve true religion in the world for their common benefit, should be reunited to them, that they might practise it together, and be one fold under one shepherd; then the third end of the law ceased, and breaking down the walls of partition, that is, taking away the ceremonies that + Eph. ii. 14. * Gal. iv. 1, &c. separated them, contributed much, not only to the uniformity and beauty of Christianity, but to the preservation of harmony and love, and the avoidance of jealousy and complaint, amongst its professors: besides, that indeed many of the institutions of Moses were calculated for the use only of one small nation, as that nation to which he prescribed them, was; and neither could possibly be observed by all mankind, nor can be observed by the Jews in their present dispersion. Yet, weighty as these considerations were, many continued unmoved by them: and insisted, that all men must keep the Jewish law; for that, without it, faith in Christ would not save them. And this is the doctrine, which St. Paul in his epistles so zealously confutes, as dishonourable to, and inconsistent with, the Gospel. He there shews, that Jews, as well as Gentiles, are sinners; and, far from meriting future happiness, by their good deeds, can escape future punishment for their bad ones only through God's mercy, which Christ hath procured for them, and revealed to them: that the law of Moses requires perfect obedience; and, after disobedience, makes no provision for pardon, but through him, whom its sacrifices presignify that therefore, if they sought for justification by their legal works, as they appeared to do, they could not be justified at all; and, if they sought it by the grace of Christ, that singly would be sufficient and it was doing it a gross injury, to imagine, that when the substance was come, the assistance of the shadow was requisite, to make it effectual: that Faith had not only saved the earlier patriarchs, but even been imputed to Abraham, the father of the Jews themselves, for righteousness*, *Rom. iv. 3. 22, 23. |