Scotland, according to the covenant that he made with D. S. That is what I hope I will never fee. But if I owned the covenanted church of Scotland to be of the fame fort with that of Ifrael, I behoved then to deny it to be catholic. R. S. As how? D. S. The covenanted church of Ifrael was a nation of this earth, separated from all other nations to God, as his kingdom, and poffeffing a spot of the earth as their proper inheritance. But a church of the New Testament is a people whom God takes out of any nation, without difference, for his name, and who sojourn in any country of the world, as strangers and pilgrims on the earth. This is catholic. But is there any charm in the word specifically, to make this of the same sort with the national church of Ifrael? R. S. Still you mistake him. He would have all the nations of the world brought into the folemn league and covenant, and subjected to the associated prefbytery that bears testimony to that covenant. And when that is, there will be a catholic church, specifically the fame with all the nations of the world, proselyted into the church of Ifrael. D. S. Say rather, specifically the same with the Jewish notion of the Messiah's kingdom. Say, specifically the same with the Roman Catholic, which answers to the city where our Lord was crucified. R. S. You may represent the professor as ridiculous to yourself as you please, and give his church all the ill names that the Revelation gives to Antichrift; but it is far below him to dispute with you. G. M. And they who believe his judicial testimony will be fure to look on all that speak against his doctrine as 'dogs barking at the moon. J. G. So much, then, for barking at the moon. A 1 430 A SUPPLEMENT to Mr EBENEZER : ERSKINE's Synodical Sermon. A [First published in the year 1732.] Fter many loud complaints of the evils and corruptions of the day we live in, have been made to no purpose; because that which lay at the bottom of them was not found out, and before that no effectual remedy could be proposed; Mr Erskine has at length made a discovery in his synodical fermon, that deserves some consideration from them that are not satisfied in a zealous indolence, always complaining and doing nothing; but want to be directed into the course they ought to take for reforming these evils and corruptions. His words are, Syn. Serm. p. 26. " I am persua"ded, that carnal notions of the kingdom of Chrift, which " is not of this world, lie at the bottom of many of the evils " and corruptions of the day we live in." This is but a hint; and it were to be wished, that he himself had taken time to lay open the grounds of his perfuafion, even though he had thereby prevented himself as to some things that follow in the fermon. But seeing it is not probable, that he will do this so quickly as the evils and corruptions call for a remedy, it should not offend him, that his thought is pursued by another that is of the same perfuafion with him in this matter. And while this is done, it is neceffary, that the scope of his fermon should be attended to as far as is consistent with the proposition that is proposed to be illuftrated. It comes in upon the reasons he gives, why the Jewish builders rejected Christ, p. 25. 26. where he says, 1. "This " fatal error of theirs proceeded from their ignorance of "Christ in the excellency of his person, and of the glorious " mystery of redemption and salvation through him, Acts iii. " Are 17. 1 Cor. ii. 7. 8. They were men of no despicable parts, " capable enough to toss an argument; they thought them" selves the only seers in Ifrael in their day; we blind "also? Yet Christ declares them blind like moles in things "relating to his kingdom. The least of Christ's babes, whom " they reckoned among the accursed mob, had more of the " saving knowledge of God, and of the things of God, than "they "they; and the blind leading the blind, both stumbled on the "stumbling stone, and fell into the ditch together. 2. Mista" ken notions of the nature of the Messiah's kingdom was an" other cause of their rejecting this precious stone. They " had formed a notion to themselves, without any real ground " from fcripture-prophecy, that the Messiah was to appear " in the form of an earthly monarch, and that he was to lift " up the head of the Jewish nation, and make the Romans, "and all the nations of the world their vassals and tributa"ries; but finding themselves mistaken, they disown and " crucify him as an impostor; which, by the by, serves to " discover what a dangerous thing it is not to have right con"ceptions of the spiritual nature of Christ's kingdom." Having thus far introduced himself to the subject by the Jewish builders, and declared the danger of wrong conceptions of the nature of Christ's kingdom, he solemnly applies what he had been saying of the Jewish builders to this day, in the remarkable words before noted. And by the same rule it is applicable to any day wherein Chriftianity is corrupted: for it is of the corruptions of Christianity that he is speaking. The corruption of Christianity has succeeded in the room of the corruption of the Jewish church, which was chiefly owing to the builders. And from thence the rejection of Christ, in his ministers and people, in his truths and the profession of his name, as the Prophet, Prieft, and King of his church, has proceeded, even as the rejection of Christ himself flowed from the corruption of religion among the Jews: And both had their rise from a mistaken notion of Christ's kingdom as set forth in the prophecies. Thus far we have Mr Erskine. But 'tis pity he did not go farther than merely to point out the way. However, keeping his direction in view, and minding the warning he has given of danger in mistaking the nature of Christ's kingdom: Let us go on to consider, first, How the Jewish builders that dealt so much in the Old-Testament prophecies, and explained them to the people, came to form such a notion of the Messiah's kingdom; and next, By a suitable application of this to some of the corruptions of the day we live in, what he says of the cause of the evils and corruptions of the day, may appear with some evidence to them that want to know the truth in this matter. As to the first, Mr Erskine says, It was without any real ground from fcripture-prophecy, that they formed that carnal notion of the Messiah's kingdom to themselves; and when he says, there was no real ground, he does not deny, but rather infinuate, that there was some appearance of a ground for their notion of the Messiah's kingdom in the prophecies. And so there was: so it behoved to be. The prophecies of the Mefsiah, and his kingdom behoved to be involved in figures: otherwise they could not have have been fulfilled by men professing to believe them, as they were fulfilled by the Jews. Even as the New-Testament prophecy concerning Antichrift could never have been fulfilled by men professing to believe the New Testament, if it had been spoken plainly, and without any proverb. God set up the kingdom of David in the prophecies, as a figure of the kingdom of Christ, and spake of it accordingly. The kingdom of heaven is a mystery, the hidden sense of a figure; and it has many such mysteries, which the Jewish builders were not made to know. They did not know the wisdom of God in a mystery; and so they took up with the figure, and neglected the hidden sense. Yea, it was not so easy for them to perceive it as it is for them that have the New-Teftament revelation, making these things very clear that were dark unto the prophets themselves: and therefore they are yet more inexcusable than the Jewish builders, who have the New-Testament revelation complete, and profess to believe it, and yet entertain carnal notions of the kingdom of Christ. Not only the Jewish builders, but our Lord's disciples, in the days of his flesh, while he was speaking parables, and before he afcended to the throne of his kingdom, and poured down the Holy Ghost, to make the New-Testament revelation full and clear, understood the prophecies of a worldly kingdom. But after the New Testament revelation, the only infallible explication of the Old, is completed by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, it is more criminal in them that profess to believe it, to imagine still, that, according to scripture-prophecy, Christ's kingdom must be some way of this world. And Mr Erskine believes there are some such imaginations in the minds of Chriftians at this day, when he is perfuaded, that carnal notions of the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, lie at the bottom of the corruptions of the day. The Jewish builders, according to the view they had of the prophecies, which yet had not a real ground in them, imagined, that the Meffiah was to fit on David's earthly throne, which the New Testament makes the figure of the heavenly; but Christians, so called, fet the kings of Europe on that throne, even as the Chriftian builders in the days of Constantine set him on that throne: and in this the Jewish builders had plainly the bet ther ter of Christians, according to the prophecies, for they gave David's throne to the Meffiah that they were looking for. The expectation that fome have of a temporal reign of the Jews in their old land, when once they are converted in a national way, and that in their land will be the visible feat of Christ's kingdom over all the world, before his fecond coming, is very like the notion that the Jewith builders had of the Old Testament prophecies; and they that think they have a real ground in the prophecies for fuch expectations, need not be surprised at the great blunder that the Jewish builders committed in explaining the prophecies. If we confider the application that some make of the prophecies touching Christ's kingdom to Scotland, we cannot be surprised at the application that the Jewith builders made of them to the land of the Jews: for it is manifest, that, by the style of the prophets, the Jewish application had fome way the advantage. And if there was enough faid in the prophecies to confute the Jewish notion of them, and to render them inexcufable in rejecting the kingdom of Chrift in the appearance it made to them, much more are they without excufe by these prophecies who have and own the New Testament that explains them. This sense of the prophecies was the more agreeable to them, that it flattered their pride, and did not remarkably cross any of their worldly lufts; but rather made way for the hopes of getting them fulfilled. This gave it a vast advan tage in their carnal minds, and in the minds of the people, over the sense of the prophecies that our Lord and his apostles contended for. This made them overlook every thing in the prophecies that seemed to cross this carnal sense of them, or reconcile it the best way they could with this fenfe. Yea, with what difficulty were the disciples at first perfuaded to give up with this carnal sense of fcripture-prophecy, and embrace the spiritual one? It required that mortification to the world and heavenliness of mind, that was wrought in them by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, to reconcile them to the true interpretation of the prophets. But the fenfe of the fcripture-prophecy that did not bear so hard on mens lufts as our Lord's interpretation of them did, was not maintained by the Jewish builders without a zeal of God and his worship and service. They shewed the greatest zeal for the law of Mofes, and for the glory of God, as the author of the Old-Teftament revelation, in contending for their fenfe of the prophecies against Chrift, and in rejecting VOL. I. 31 |