more virtuous Heathen. They are to suffer everlastingly, but they are to be only "beaten with few stripes." I cannot but observe, that this is a virtual abandonment of their argument, because, if punished at all for their ignorance of the Gospel, it would seem their punishment should be inflexible and extreme. allow involuntary ignorance to be deserving of punishment, and, then, the greatest ignorance will deserve the greatest punish ment. Once "There is an ignorance which doth wholly excuse from all manner of guilt, and that is, an absolute and invincible ignorance, when a person is wholly ignorant of the thing, which, if he knew, he would be bound to do. In this case a person is in no fault, if he did not do what he never knew, nor could know to be his duty." Tillotson. Query. Is not this precisely the ignorance of the Heathen, with regard to Christ? SECTION LX. The Canaanitish Woman. THIS is on many accounts one of the most remarkable miracles of Jesus; but, on none is it more deserving of attention, than as it bears a reference to this argument for the salvability of Heathen nations. In the language of the Jews, the Canaanites were a cursed nation; and if any people could be supposed to be excluded from the mercies of God, it would have been this illfated people. Yet here we have an example, that even a Canaanite was not excluded from the possibility of salvation ; and the inference which is thence derivable to all other nations, is too obvious to require any remark. The manner in which Jesus tries this poor Gentile is, however, so closely connected with our argument, that it ought to be noticed. For the purpose of eliciting her faith, he begins to reason with her on the exclusive principle of the Jews: "I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matt. xv. 24. Nay, he even condescends to adopt their usual language, by calling her "a dog." But, this appearance of severity was only meant to conceal the extent of his mercy; and so will it probably be found, when some, who have never heard of his name, shall partake of the benefits of his passion. Such is the natural inference, as connected with our argument. Yet it is painful to observe, that Bishop Hall would give it a Calvinistic tendency: "God's word is like himself, no respecter of persons; the wild Kerne, the rude Scythian, the savage Indian are alike to it. The mercy of God will be sure to find out those that belong to his Election." But to this high authority, I beg leave to oppose the comment of Bishop Horsley: "No Jew was individually a child, nor any Gentile individually a dog, as a Jew or a Gentile, but as a good or a bad man." See Hall's Contemplations, and Horsley's Sermons on this subject. 66 SECTION LXI. They glorified the God of Israel." tt MANY of the miraculous cures of Jesus were performed on Gentile individuals, and I apprehend that this expression leads to this conclusion, on the occasion here referred to. But, in thus making the blind to see, the dumb to speak, and the deaf to hear, without any regard to their country or religious sentiments, a very strong inference arises, that Christ, in his character and office as the Saviour and Redeemer of the world, acts on the same free and impartial principles. The fairest method of trying this reasoning, is to suppose that he had cured none but those who professed their belief in him as the predicted Messias, and that he had made their faith, on all occasions, the sole condition on which he administered to their temporal necessities. That this was not always the case, may "Great multitudes be safely asserted. followed him, and he healed them there." Matt. xix. 2. "All they that had any sick with divers diseases, brought them unto him, and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them." Luke iv. 40. In these, and many similar cases, Jesus appears to have performed his miracles, without demanding any confessions, either from the patients, or those who brought them. "He went about doing good, and healing all manner of disease." Let it be considered then, whether we are not involuntarily led to infer from such acts of mercy spontaneously exercised on the bodies of Pagans and Idolaters, the far greater mercy of God towards their spiritual wants and necessities, and whether it would not imply a moral contradiction to argue in any other manner. For various illustrations of this kind, I would refer to my Sermons on the Parables and Miracles. See particularly p, 115 and 302. |