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Jewish Peculiarity no Prejudice to the reft of Mankind. CH. IV

CHA P. IV.

The fewish Peculiarity not prejudicial to the Reft of Mankind. God was fill the God and Father of all; and the Ifraelites were obliged to exercife all Benevolence to Men of other Nations: Yea, the Conftitution was, in Fact, erected for the Good of all the World.

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UT though the Father of Mankind was pleased, in his wifdom, to erect the foregoing scheme, for promoting virtue, and preferving true religion in one nation of the world, upon whom he conferred particular. bleffings and privileges, this was no injury nor prejudice to the rest of mankind. For, as to original favours, or external advantages, God, who may do what he pleafes with his own, bestows them in any kind or degree, as he thinks fit. Thus he makes a variety of creatures; fome angels in a higher fphere of being, fome men in a lower. And among men, he diftributes different faculties, ftations and opportunities in life. To one he gives ten talents, to another five, to another two, to another one, feverally as he pleases; without any impeachment of his juftice, and to the glorious difplay and illuftration of his wisdom. And fo he may bestow different advantages, and favours upon different nations, with as much juftice and wildom, as he has placed them in different climates, or vouchfafed them various accom modations and conveniencies of life. But, whatever advantages fome nations may enjoy above others, ftill God is the God and Father of all; and his extraordinary bleflings to fome are not intended to diminish his regards to others. He erected a scheme of polity and religion for promoting the knowledge of God, and the practice of virtue in one nation; but not with a design to withdraw his goodness or providential regards from the reft. God has made a variety of foils, and fituations; yet he cares for every part of the globe; and the inhabitants of the North Cape, where they conflict a good part of the year with night and extreme cold, are no more neglected by the univerfal Lord, than those who enjoy the perpetual fummer and pleafures of the Canary Isles. At the fame time God chofe the children of Ifrael to be his peculiar people, in a fpecial covenant, he was the God of the reft of mankind, and regarded them as the objects of his care and benevolence. Exod. xix. 5, "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye fhall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all People: " although all the earth is mine." So it fhould be rendered. Deut. x. 14, 15, "Behold the heaven, and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth with all that therein are. Only the Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose their feed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day." Ver. 17, 18, "For the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regardeth not perfons, [or, "is no refpecter of perfons,” (Acts x. 34.) through partiality to one perfon, or one nation

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more than another] nor taketh reward. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherlefs and widow, and loveth the firanger, in giving him food and raiment." [A ftranger was one, who was of any other nation befide the Jewish. [37] Pfal. cxlvi. 9, "The Lord preferveth the ftrangers." viii. 1. xix. 1, 2, 3, 4. xxiv. 1. xxxiii. 5, "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." Ver. 8, "Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world ftand in awe of him." Ver. 12, "Bleffed is the nation whofe God is the Lord, [29] and the people whom he has chofen for his own inheritance." [53] Ver. 13, "The Lord looketh from Heaven: he beholdeth all the fons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts alike: he confidereth all their works." xlvii. 2, 8, "The Lord moft high is a great King over all the earth. God reigneth over the heathen :" lxvi. 7. cvii. 8, 15, 21. cxlv. 9, "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works."Many more paffages might be brought out of the Scriptures of the Old Teftament to fhew, that all the nations of the earth were the objects of the divine care and goodnefs, at the fame time, that he vouchsafed a particular and extraordinary providence towards the Jewish nation.

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74. And agreeably to this, the Ifraelites were required to exercise all benevolence and good-will to the Gentiles, or ftrangers, to abftain from all injurious treatment, to permit them to dwell peaceably and comfortably among them, to partake of their bleflings, to incorporate into the fame happy body, if they thought fit, and to join in their religious folemnities. Exod. xxii. 21, "Thou shalt neither vex a ftranger,, nor opprefs him." xxiii. 9, 12. Lev. xix. 10, "Thou fhalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger; I am the Lord your God." xxiii. 22. xix. 33, 34, "And if a stranger fojourn with thee in your land, ye fhall not vex him. But the stranger, that dwelleth with you, fhall be unto you as one born amongst you, and thou shalt love him as thyfelf.". xxv. 35," And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay with thee then thou fhalt relieve him: yea though he be a stranger, or a fojourner; that he may live with thee." Num. xv. 14, 15, " And if a stranger fojourn with you, or whofoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire of a sweet favour unto the Lord: as ye do, fo he fhall do. One ordinance fhall be both for you, of the congregation, [52] and alfo for the ftranger that fojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, fo fhall the ftranger be before the Lord." Deut. xxvi. 11, 12, " And thou fhalt rejoice in every good thing, which the Lord thy God has given unto thee, and unto thy house, thou and the Levite, and the ftranger that is among you," Ezek. xxii. 7, 29. 75. And not only were they required to treat ftrangers, or men of other nations, with kindness and humanity; but it appears, from feveral parts of Scripture, that the whole Jewish difpenfation had refpect to the nations of the world: not indeed to bring them all into the Jewish church, (that would have been impracticable, as to the greatest part of the world) but to fpread the knowledge and obedience of God in the earth. Or, it was a fcheme which was intended to have its good effects beyond the pale of

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the Jewish inclosure, and was established for the benefit of all mankind. Gen. xii. 3, "And in thee [Abraham] fhall all families of the earth be blefled." xxii. 18, "And in thy feed fhall all the nations of the earth be bleffed." Exod. vii. 5, " And the Egyptians fhall know that I am the Lord, when I ftretch forth my hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Ifrael."—ix. 16,"And indeed for this very caufe have I raised thee," Pharach, "up, for to fhew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth." xv. 14. Lev. xxvi. 45. Num. xiv. 13, 14, 15, "And Mofes faid unto the Lord, then the Egyptians fhall hear it, (for thou broughteft up this people in thy might from among them) and they will tell it to the inhabitants of this land: for they have heard that thou Lord art among this people, that thou Lord art feen face to face, and that thy cloud ftandeth over them, and that thou goeft before them, by day-time in a pillar of a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night. Now if thou fhalt kill all this people as one man, then the nations, which have heard the fame of thee will fpeak, faying," &c. Deut. iv. 6, "Keep [thefe ftatutes and judgments] therefore and do them, for this is your wifdom, and your underftanding in the fight of the nations, which fhall hear all thofe ftatues, and fay, Surely this great nation is a wife and understanding people.' 1 Sam. xvii. 46, "I will give the carcafes of the Philistines to the fowls of the air,—that all the earth may know that there is a God in Ifrael." 1 Kings viii. 41, 42, 43, "Moreover concerning a ftranger, that is not of thy people Ifrael, but comes out of a far country for thy name's fake; (for they fhall hear of thy great name, and of thy ftrong hand, and of thy ftretched out arm) when he fhall come, and pray towards this houfe: hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and do according to all that the ftranger calleth to thee for that all people of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee, as do thy people Ifrael," &c. Pfal. lxvii. 1, 2, 3, &c. xcviii. 1, 2, 3, Jer. xxxiii. 9, " And it fhall be to me a name of joy, a praise, and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which fhall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they fhall fear and tremble for all the goodness, and for all the profperity that I procure for it." Hof. ii. 23, "I will fow her unto me in the earth." Zeph. iii. 20,-"I will make you a name and praise among all the people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity," &c.

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CHA P. V.

The Jewish Peculiarity was to receive its Perfection from the Gafpel Dif penfation, under the SON OF GOD. The Gafpel is the Jewith Scheme inlarged and improved.

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UT though the Jewish Peculiarity did not exclude the reft of the world from the care and beneficence of the Univerfal Father; and though the Jews were commanded vite benevolence towards perfons of other nations; yet, about the

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time when the gofpel was promulged, the Jews were greatly elevated on account of their diftinguifhing privileges, and looked upon themfelves as the only favourites of Heaven, and regarded the reit of mankind with a fovereign contempt, as nothing, as, abandoned of God, and without a poflibility of falvation, unlefs they fhould incorporate, in fome degree or other, with their nation. Their constitution, they fuppofed, was eftablifhed for ever, never to be altered, or in any refpect abolished. They were the true and only church, out of which no man could be accepted of God: and confequently, unless a man fubmitted to the law of Mofes, how virtuous or good foever he were, it was their belief, he could not be faved. He had no right to a place in the church, nor could hereafter obtain life.

77. But the Jewith difpenfation, as peculiar to that people, though fuperior to the mere light of nature, which it fuppofed and included, was but of a temporary duration, and of an inferior and imperfect kind, in comparison of that which was to follow; and which God from the beginning, (when he entered into covenant with Abraham, and made the promise to him) intended to erect; and which he made feveral declarations under the Old Teftament, that he would erect, in the proper time, as fucceflive to the Jewish difpenfation, and, as a fuperftructure, perfective of it. And as the Jewith difpenfa-, tion was erected by the miniftry of Mofes, this was to be built by the miniftry of a much nobler hand; even that of the Son of God, the Meffiah, fore-ordained before the world was made, promifed to Abraham, foretold by the prophets, and even expected by the Jews themfelves, though under no juft conceptions of the end of his coming into the world. He was to affume, and live in a human body, to declare the truth and grace of God more clearly and exprefsly to the Jews, to exhibit a pattern of the most perfect obedience, to be obedient even unto death in compliance with the will of God, and in firm adherence to the truth he taught. And, in confequence of this, he was alfo to be a pattern of reward, by being raised from the dead, exalted to the right hand of God, invefted with univerfal power, and by having a commiflion given him to raise all mankind from the dead, and to put all, in all ages and places of the world, into the posfeflion of eternal life, who fhall at the last day be found virtuous and holy. When Chrift came into the world, the Jews were ripe for deftruction; but he published a general indemnity for the tranfgreffions of the former covenant, upon their repentance; and openly revealed a future ftate, as the true Land of Promife, even eternal life in hea ven. Thus he confirmed the former covenant with the Jews, as tothe favour and bleffing of God, and enlarged, or more clearly explained it, as to the bleffings therein beftowed; inftead of an earthly Canaan, revealing the refurrection from the dead, and everlasting happiness and glory in the world to come.

78. His perfonal ministry indeed was confined to the Jewish nation, Mat. xv. 24, "I am not fent but to the loft sheep of the houfe of Ifrael." Rom. xv. 8, "Now, I fay, that Jefus Chrift was a minifter of the circumcifion, for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." But not only did he improve upon the foregoing difpenfation, more

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clearly explaining the Abrahamic covenant; but further, whereas for many ages, we Gentiles, confidered in a body, were in a state of revolt from God, aliens and enemies, [37] ferving dumb idols; while the Jews were his peculiar people, church and heritage, he threw the kingdom of God into a new form, by taking down the partition wall, the wall of the Jewish inclosure, and admitting into his church and kingdom, as his people and subjects, all in every nation, who fhould acknowledge the truth of his miffion and doctrine, and profefs fubjection to him, as their king and governour. In pursuance of this now scheme, his apoftles, but especially St. Paul, published a general indemnity, and free pardon to the Gentile world, which then was very corrupt, and obnoxious to the wrath and juft condemna tion of God; and declared, that all, who believed in him, were intitled to all the privileges, bleffings and promises of his church and kingdom, according to the most extenfive fenfe of the Abrahamic covenant; and at the fame time exempted from the incumbrance of the ceremonial law. Thus the Jewish peculiarity was happily overthrown; not, properly speaking, by being totally annulled, but by being enlarged to the extent of the whole globe, and by admitting all mankind, who accepted the gofpel, not only to the fame fpiritual advantages, but even to much greater; even into their covenant explained and enlarged.

79. That the gofpel is the Jewish scheme, enlarged and improved,! will evidently appear, if we confider; that we Gentiles believing in Christ are faid to be incorporated into the fame body with the Jews; and that believing Jews and Gentiles are now become one, one flock, one body in Chrift. John x. 16, " And other fheep I have which are not of this [the Jewish] fold: them alfo I must bring, and they fhall hear my voice; and there fhall be one flock (*), [41] and one Shepherd." 1 Cor. xii. 13, "By one fpirit we are all baptized in one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles." Gal. iii. 28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is nei ther bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jefus," that is, under the gofpel difpenfation. Ephef. ii. 14, 15, 16," For he is our peace, who has made both [Jews and Gentiles] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us, [Jews and Gentiles.] Having abolished by his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, for to make in himself, of twain, one new man, fo making peace; and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the crofs, having flain the enmity thereby."

80. And that this union or coalition, between believing Jews and Gentiles, is to be understood of the believing Gentiles being taken into that church and covenant, in which the Jews were before the gol pel difpenfation was erected, and out of which the unbelieving Jews were caft, is evident from the following confiderations.

81. Firft. That Abraham, the head, or root of the Jewish na

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(*) So the word on fignifies; and fo our tranflators have rendered it in all the other places, where it is ufed in the New Teftament. See Mat. xxvi 31. Luke .8. 1 Cor. ix. 7. And here alfo it fhould have been tranflated flock, not fold.

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