to the heathens to become Jews; that is to become circumcised, to live among the Jews, and to unite with them in their modes of religious worship. God declared, that Jerusalem was the only place, where men could worship acceptably; and, by this, excommunicated the whole heathen world. When God erected Israel into a visible church, he virtually excluded all other nations from it. But can we suppose, that God would excommunicate all the heathen nations from the priviliges of the true church, if he did not mean to cast them off forever? Why should he expressly separate those on earth, whom he intended to unite in heaven? All the heathen nations are properly outcasts; and so long as God continues them in this situation, there is no reason to think, that he means to save them. The present heathen nations are as ignorant and wicked as the ancient heathen nations were, and there is no more reason to imagine, that the present heathen nations, as such, will be saved, than that those ancient heathen nations were; but on the other hand, to suppose, that as the ancient heathens were destroyed, so the present heathen nations will meet with the same awful doom. 3. When God sent Christ into the world, to bring life and immortality to light, he directed him to preach to the Jews, and not to the gentiles. Hence we read, "He came to his own, and his own received him not." By his own are meant his own people, the Jews.--They were God's peculiar people in distinction from all the heathen nations; and they alone God meant to favor with the means of grace, which he had denied to all the heathens whom he had given up to destruction.--Upon this ground Christ himself declares, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."-- Though he preached to many cities and villages in Judea, yet he never went to the gentiles. And no reason can be given for this, but that God meant to leave the heathens in their ignorant and perishing condition. It was a prevailing opinion in our Savior's day that "salvation is of the Jews;" that is, confined to them. Nor did Christ contradict this opinion, though he predicted that the gentiles should, in some future time, worship the true God in spirit and in truth. His whole conduct and preaching carried the idea, that God did not design to bestow his grace, where he denied the means of grace. 4. When God sent the apostles to preach to heathens, he sent them to turn them from heathenism to christianity. They durst not go to the gentiles, until they were expressly and divinely directed to go. They looked upon them as given over to ruin, and supposed that God intended to destroy them without remedy.--When Cornelius, the gentile, sent for Peter to preach to him, he durst not go until he received a vision from God, in which he was commanded to go. And though he was successful in preaching, yet his brethren blamed him for his conduct, until he convinced them, that God had meant to save some of the gentiles. For this purpose, Peter and Paul and the other apostles were sent to the heathens. This Paul declares with respect to his own mission. He says when Christ converted him, he addressed him in these terms: «Rise, and stand on thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people, and from the gentiles, unto whom I now He send thee, to open their eyes, and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith, that is in me." This commission plainly implies, that the heathens, to whom Paul was sent, were in a state of condemnation and exposed to endless destruction. It was a great mystery to Paul and others, until it was revealed, that salvation should be extended to the gentiles. Hence he says to the Ephesians, "For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is given me to you ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery---which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto us the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit; that, the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and par. takers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." It was also a great mystery to the Jewish converts, that the apostle should preach to gentiles, and that with success. The church at Jerusalem were astonished, when Peter told them of his success, at the house of Cornelius. When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, "Then hath God also to the gentiles granted repentance unto life." Paul and Barnabas related their success among the gentiles to the church at Antioch, as a matter of admiration. "And when they were come and had gathered the ehurch together, they rehearsed all that the Lord had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith to the gentiles." And Peter mentions it to the council at Jerusalem, as something very extraordinary, that he should be appointed to preach the gospel to gentiles, in order to their salvation. "And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among you, that the gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe." Thus the apostles declare, that they were sent to the heathens, that they might believe and be saved; which implies that without the gospel, they were perishing for lack of knowledge.--And, indeed, the apostle Paul expressly tells the believers at Ephesus, that before the gospel came to them, they were in a state of total ignorance and despair.--"Wherefore remember that ye being in time past gen. tiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." Now if the heathen nations were in a perishing condition, in the days of the apostles, they are in the same condition, at this day. For all the nations, whom the gospel has not reached, are still without Christ, without God and without hope in the world. And if the apostles had a right to believe and say, that the heathens would perish without the light of the gospel, then we have the same right to believe and say, that those who still live and die without the gospel, will be turned into hell. 5. God has told us, that he intends to convert all the heathen nations, and that he intends to do it, by the Instrumentality of the gospel. God promised to Abraham, that "in him all the families of the earth shall be blessed." God said to Christ in the second psalm, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." God told his ancient church by Isaiah, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the gentiles." The angel said to the shepherds at Christ's birth, "Behold, 1 bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Simeon said, when he took Christ into his arms, "Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." Paul, speaking to the believing gentiles concerning the unbelieving Jews, says, "Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid but rather through their fall, salvation is come to the gentiles. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the di minishing of them the riches of the gentiles; how much more their fulness? For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, that blindness, in part, is happened unto Israel until the fulness of the gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved." It appears from these pas. sages of scripture, that God intends to convert all the heathen nations, in some future period. He has already cast away the Jews, in order to convert gentiles; and : |