the character of the Jews, and, as I fuppofe, of fome who had believed (or of fome who, as St. John fays, "went out from among them); that they forbid them to fpeak to the Gentiles, that they may be faved.". So that God in his providence faw fit to let the gospel be well received by the Jews, and fettled among them, before it was to be. offered to the Gentiles; left that fhould fill have created freth prejudices in the minds of the Jews againft it, and have obftructed (at leaft among them) the reception and furtherance of the gofpel, if it had not occafioned the apoftacy of fome of them from it. God ordered things therefore fo, that the gofpel fhould not be preached to the profelyted Gentiles till the great converfions among the Jews were over; nor to the idolatrous Gentiles, till the Jews at Jerufalem would not receive the teftimony of Paul (or of the apoftles) about Chrift, and were found every where as ready to reject it, and even with the fame difdain and blafphemy, as they did at Antioch in Pifidia. And then indeed, when there was but a finall remnant of them left that was to be faved, and that the reft were very near filling up the measure of their x * 1 John ii. 19. 7 Acts xxii. 18. Y I Theff. ii. 16. iniquity, and becoming ripe for a total deftruction, this offer was made to the whole body of the Gentiles; that fo God might yet try the laft and the rougheft, method with the Jews, and provoke them to receive the gofpel, if it were but from emulation and jealoufy; as St. Paul's manner of fpeaking to them imports, Acts xiii. 46. and xxviii. 28. and as he expreffly afferts in the ixth and xiith chapters of his Epiftle to the Romans. This was the natural tendency of fo wife and gracious a conduct towards this nation; though, through their wicked temper, it had a quite contrary effect, and made them mad with rage against the gofpel. All which was agreeable to Mofes's prediction ", quoted by St. Paul, I will provoke you (Jews) to jealoufy by them that are no people; I will provoke them to anger by a foolish nation." And as this was agreeable to thefe predictions, fo was it likewife highly fuitable to thofe perfections, which the Almighty always claimed the praise of from this people: "That the "Lord is a God gracious and merciful, flow "to anger, and of great loving-kindness, repenting him of the evil, and waiting to be gracious to the children of men." Nor was it lefs agreeable to the amazing methods of patience and tenderness, which he had taken 66 66 Deut. xxxii. 21, Rom. x. 19. all all along with them, in order to reclaim them; ftill trying the gentler means firft: till they rejecting him after all, juftified his rejecting them for a feason. ALL which was done for our inftruction and caution, on whom the ends of the world are come. And we shall be very much wanting to ourselves, if we do not, from the whole story of that people, draw the moral that is fo evidently and beautifully held out in it, for the improvement and reformation of mankind; that no ritual performances, promifes, or external privileges, will entitle any nation or perfon to the Divine protection and favour, without national or perfonal virtue and religion. This is the truth that St. Paul evidently deduces from feveral remarkable occurrences in the Jewish history; and which may be as juftly inferred from all the rest. Which if a divine of a very four wit, in the laft age, had but attended to, it would fure have prevented a very petulant paffage which we find in one of his fermons: "That God "chofe this perverfe people, as Socrates did "his wife Xantippe, only to exercise his patience." But to return from this digreffion. Whatever difficulty there may be, after all that I 1 Cor, x. 1-15, have faid, in conceiving how the converfion of the idolatrous Gentiles, and the terms on which they were received into the fellowship of Chrift, was kept fecret for thirteen years from the church at Jerufalem; yet perhaps there will be much greater in fuppofing it made known to them immediately, or at the third time of Paul's being at Jerufalem, ann. 49: as may appear from the Fourth Essay. BESIDES; St. Paul exprefly tells us, that he communicated the gofpel, which he preached to the Gentiles, to Peter, James, and John, fourteen years after his conversion "; that is, ann. 49. And we know, that he first preached this gospel ann. 45. So that we are certain it was not known to the three chief apostles till about four years after it was preached. Now it will not be much more difficult to conceive how it might be kept fecret from the whole church thirteen years, than for about four from thefe three apostles; whofe thoughts were wholly taken up about the fuccefs that attended the preaching of the gofpel in the world. FARTHER, St. Paul tells us in the fame place, that he then communicated this gospel to the three apoftles only privately; "left • Gal. ii. I. f See the Abstract. " by 66 by any means he had run, or should run "in vain." It is therefore implied, that he communicated it thus privately to them, that he might keep it a fecret from all the reft of the church of Jerufalem; efpecially fince, if it had been communicated to others, it might have come to the knowledge of thofe " falfe "brethren, who wanted to spy out this (full) liberty, that they (the Heathen converts) "had in Chrift §." Ir is plain, therefore, that the gospel which was preached to the idolatrous Gentiles, and confequently the converfion of them, was defigned to be kept fecret for fome longer time. And who fhall fay for how much longer a time time that was, or that it might not be for nine years longer? efpecially fince St. Luke feems to mention that, at the time when Paul communicated this news to James, "all the elders being prefent "." AND if God (who referves" the times "and feafons (xpives xapes) in his own hands") faw fit, either for thefe reafons which I have mentioned, or for others, to conceal this matter from the Jewish church at Jerufalem, and that thofe methods, which * See the Fourth Elay. hActs xxi. 18-21. See the Third and Fourth Effays. Acts i. 7. |