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his justice. We may now indeed conclude that it is so, because such limitation has not been made but no man could have pretended to say beforehand, that he was of right entitled to redemption; and therefore no man could justly have complained, if it had not been extended to him in all the fulness of its accomplishment by Jesus Christ. Surely then we, and all believers, from the first development of that mystery of the Gospel to its final consummation, ought to be exceedingly thankful, that the Almighty did not so limit and circumscribe his plan of mercy; that he did admit the Gentiles into the Messiah's kingdom; that he did pledge himself by his Holy Spirit to a larger and more comprehensive scheme of redemption; and did execute it by his onlybegotten Son, who died for the sins of the world. Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that thou so visitest_him ?* When Jew and Gentile were alike concluded under sin,† how graciously didst thou vouchsafe to unclose alike the gates of mercy to them both; to give light to them that sat in darkness and the shadow of death, and to lift up an ensign to the nations from far,§ even the ensign of the cross!

* Ps. viii. 4. + Gal. iii. 22. ↑ Lukei. 79. § Is. v. 26.

Let us be thankful also, for indeed it is a subject of inexpressible thankfulness, that we are not amongst those heathen tribes, who have not even yet received the glad tidings of salvation. Let us bless God, that his providence has so ordered the course of human affairs, that the tide of civilization, at an early period after the rising of the day-spring from on high, set towards the shores of these countries, and prepared a barbarous people for the reception of the Gospel. Let us be thankful that its light, although at times obscured and oppressed, has never been extinct amongst us; and that since it was purified and renewed at the glorious Reformation, we have not only enjoyed its illuminating and sanctifying influence ourselves, but have been permitted to follow the steps of the holy Apostles in diffusing it to the remotest corners of the earth. It is a work of charity peculiarly suited to us, whom the Lord hath called out of darkness into his marvellous light,* to repeat and enforce the call to those who are still in the shadow of death: Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Let us pray that the call may be more earnestly and emphatically made; more readily and effectually listened to.

* 1 Pet. ii. 9.

+ Ephes. v. 14,

But it is time for us to return to the proceedings of the Apostles. It was now fully revealed to them, that God had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.* But upon this arose a very natural question: How are the Gentiles to be admitted into the kingdom of God? Is the tabernacle of Moses to become the vestibule and entrance to the Church of Christ? Are the Gentiles to be made denizens in the commonwealth of Israel, before they can become fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God? Is the distinguishing federal rite of the old Covenant to be the indispensable method of transition, from their natural state of total alienation, to one of complete reconciliation with God? It was very natural for the Jewish converts to think that it should be so; especially when they recollected, without fully understanding, our Saviour's declaration, that he was come, not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it. If not to destroy the law, said they, then surely not to abrogate circumcision, the characteristic rite of the law forgetting that circumcision was only a seal of the righteousness of faith ;§ of which God had now given a surer pledge and security in

*Acts xiv. 27.
Matth. v. 17.

+ Ephes. ii. 19.
§ Rom. iv. 11.

the death of Jesus Christ; in whom neither cir cumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.* The Jews attributed a greater virtue to circumcision than that with which it was invested by the ordinance of God. It was inconsistent with the spirit of the Gospel dispensation, to attribute any virtue, any intrinsic justifying or saving virtue, to any ordinance or outward act whatever; and, therefore, this opinion of the efficacious virtue of circumcision, erroneous as it was under the Mosaic dispensation, was far more injuriously so under the Christian. By the deeds of the law, circumcision amongst the rest, shall no flesh be justified in his sight. If circumcision were necessary to a Christian convert, it was so, as having a justifying efficacy; not simply as an initiatory rite; for the appointed form of admission into the family of Christ was baptism; but the sacrifice of the death of Christ was therefore necessary, because no legal observance had, or could have, any justifying efficacy.

The false opinion, then, which the Jewish believers, especially they of the Pharisees, entertained, respecting the necessity of circumcision, was an error which affected the first and most + Rom. i. 20.

* Gal. v. 6.

important principles of Christian faith. Yet it was not a question, respecting which the Holy Spirit had, in the first instance, fully enlightened the minds of all the Apostles and first preachers of the Gospel; for we read in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts, that when certain men which came down from Judea, taught the brethren, and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved; it occasioned no small dissension and disputation with them; and in order to the allaying of it, they determined to send Paul and Barnabas, and certain other of them, to Jerusalem, to the Apostles and elders. Upon their arrival there, a council was holden of the Apostles and elders, for the purpose of considering this matter; and the circumstance recorded by St. Luke, that there was much disputing in that assembly, which was not appeased till Peter and Paul and Barnabas and James had addressed the council, proves that the Holy Ghost had not authoritatively predetermined this question; but had left it to the determination of their own wisdom and piety. But perhaps it may be said, that this position is hardly to be reconciled with the expression employed in the letter which was the fruit of their deliberations, It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.

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