If it be here said, It was often foretold by the prophets, that in the days of the gospel other nations should be the people of God,as well as the nation of the Jews: And when Christ sent forth his apostles, he bid them go and disciple all nations.

I answer; By a common figure of speech the prevailing part of a nation are called the nation, and what is done to them is said to be done to the nation, and what is done by them is said to be done by that nation; And it is to be hoped, that the time is coming when the prevailing part of many nations, yea of every nation under heaven, will be regularly brought into the visible church of Christ. And if we by nations in these prophecies understand any other than the prevailing part, and it be insisted on that we must understand it of all the people belonging to those nations; there never has yet been any nation in this sense regularly brought into the visible church of Christ, even according to the scheme of those whom I oppose For there never yet has been an whole nation that were outwardly moral. And besides what Mr. Blake says in his Treatise of the Covenant, page 238, may be applied here, and serve as an answer to this objection: «The prophecies of the Old Testament (says he) of the glory of the New Testament times, are in Old Testament phrases, by way of allusion to the worship of those times, set forth to us." In Rev. xxi. 24, nations are spoken of, as having an interest in the New Jerusalem, which yet is represented as perfectly pure, without the least degree of pollution and defilement, ver. 27. And as for the command to the apostles, to disciple all nations, it was a direction to them as to what they should attempt, or do as much towards as they could; not a prediction of what they should bring to pass in their day: For they never brought one half of any one nation into the visible Christian church, nor any at all in one half of the nations in the world, it is very probable.

If it should here be further objected, that it is an evidence that Gentile Christians are visible saints, according to the New Testament notion of visible saintship, in the very same manner as the whole Jewish nation were till they were broken off by their obstinate rejection of the Messiah; that the Gen

tile Christians are represented as being grafted into the same olive, from whence the Jews were broken off by unbelief, Rom. xi. 17, &c.

I would inquire, What any one can intend by this objection? Whether it be this, viz. That we ought to insist on no higher or better qualifications, in admitting persons as members of the Christian church, and to all its privileges than the whole nation of the Jews, of that generation which 'lived in Christ's time were possessed of, till they had obstin`ately persisted in their rejection of him? If this is not intended, the objection is nothing to the purpose: Or if this be intended, neither then is it to the purpose of those with whom Thave especially to do in this controversy, who hold orthodoxy, knowledge of the fundamental doctrines of religion, moral sincerity, and a good conversation, to be qualifications, which ought to be insisted on, in order to a visible church state : For a very great part of those Jews were destitute of these qualifications; many of them were Sadducees, who denied a future state; others of them Herodians, who were occasional conformists with the Romans in their idolatries; the prevailing sect among them were Pharisees, who openly professed the false doctrine of justification by the works of the law and external privileges, that leaven of the Pharisees, which Christ warns his disciples to beware of: Many of them were scandalously ignorant, for their teachers had taken away the key of knowledge: Multitudes were grossly vicious, for it was a generation in which all manner of sin and wickedness prevailed.

I think that text in Rom. xi. can be understood no otherwise, in any consistence with plain fact, than that the Gentile Christians succeeded the Jews, who had been either in themselves or ancestors, the children of Abraham, with respect to a visible interest in the covenant of grace (which, as has been observed, was the substance and marrow of the cov enant made with Abraham) until they were broken off from the church, and ceased any longer to be visible saints by their open and obstinate unbelief; (as indeed either they or their ancestors had all been thus broken off from the church of

visible saints; for every branch or family of the stock of Ja cob had been in the church of visible saints, and each branch withered and failed through unbelief.) This was the highest and most important sense in which any of the Jews were externally the children of Abraham, and implied the greatest privileges. But there was another sense, in which the whole nation, including even those of them who were no visible saints, were his children (which as has been shewn) implied great privileges, wherein Christian Gentiles do not succeed them, though they have additional ecclesiastical privileges, vastly beyond the Jews.

Whether I have succeeded, in rightly explaining these matters, or no, yet my failing in it is of no great importance with regard to the strength of the objection, that occasioned my attempting it; which was, that scandalously wicked men among the Jews are called God's people, &c. The objection, as I observed, is as much against the scheme of those whom I oppose, as against my scheme; and therefore it as much concerns them, to find out some explanation of the matter that shall shew something else is intended by it, than their having the qualifications of visible saints, as it does me; and a failing in such an attempt as much affects aud hurts their cause, as it does mine.

OBJECTION III.

THOSE in Israel, who made no profession of piety of heart, did according to divine institution partake of the passover; a Jewish sacrament, representing the same things, and a seal of the very same covenant of grace with the Lord's supper; and particularly it would be unreasonable to suppose, that all made a profession of godliness whom God commanded to keep that first passover in Egypt, which the whole congregation were required to keep, and there is no shadow of any such thing as their all first making a solemn public profession of those things wherein true piety consists : And so the people in general partook of the passover, from

generation to generation; but it would be hard to suppose, that they all professed a supreme regard to God in their hearts.

ANSWER 1. The affair of the Israelites' participation of the passover, and particularly that first passover in Egypt, is attended with altogether as much difficulty in regard to the qualifications which the objectors themselves suppose requisite in communicants at the Lord's table, as with regard to those which I insist upon; and if there be any argument in the case, it is fully as strong an argument against their scheme, as mine. One thing they insist upon as a requisite qualification for the Lord's supper, is a public profession of religion as to the essential doctrines of it: But there is no more shadow of a public profession of this kind, preceding that passover in Egypt, than of a profession of godliness. Here, not to insist on the great doctrines of the fall of man, of our undone state by nature, of the Trinity, of our dependence on the free grace of God for justification, &c. let us take only those two doctrines of a future state of rewards and punishments, and the doctrine of the Messiah to come, that Messiah who was represented in the passover: Is there any more appearance, in satred story of the people's making a public profession in Egypt of these doctrines before they partook of the passover, than of their making profession of the love of God? And is there any more probability of the former, than of the latter? Another thing which they on the other side suppose necessary to a due attendance on the Lord's supper, is, that when any have openly been guilty of gross sins they should, before they come to this sacrament, openly confess and humble themselves for their faults. Now it is evident by many Scriptures, that a great part of the children of Israel in Egypt had been guilty of joining with the Egyptians in worshipping their false gods, and had lived in idolatry: But the history in Exodus gives us no account of any public solemn confession of, or humiliation for this great sin, before they came to the passover. Mr. Stoddard observes (Appeal p. 58, 59) that there was in the church of Israel a way appointed by God for the removal of scandals; men being required in that case to offer up their VOL. I. 2 L

sacrifices, attended with confession and visible signs of repentance. But where do we read of the people's offering up sacrifices in Egypt, attended with confession for removing the scandal of that most heinous sin of idolatry they had lived in ? Or is there any more probability of their publicly professing their repentance and humiliation for their sin, before their celebrating the passover, than of their publicly professing to love God above all? Another thing which they suppose to be requisite in order to admission to the Lord's table, and about which they would have a particular care be taken, is, that every person admitted give evidence of a competent knowledge in the doctrines of religion, and none be allowed to partake who are grossly ignorant. Now there is no more appearance of this with regard to the congregation in Egypt, than of a profession of godliness; and it is as difficult to suppose it. There is abundant reason to suppose, that vast numbers in that nation, consisting of more than a million of adult persons, had been brought up in a great degree of ignorance, amidst their slavery in Egypt, where the people seem to have almost forgotten the true God and the true religion: And though pains had been taken by Moses, now for a short season to instruct the people better; yet it must be considered, it is a very great work, to take a whole nation under such degrees of ignorance and prejudice, and bring every one of them to a competent degree of knowledge in religion; and a greater work still for Moses both thus to instruct them, and also by examination or otherwise, to come to a just satisfaction, that all had indeed attained to such knowledge.

Mr. Stoddard insists, that if grace be requisite in the Lord's supper, it would have been as much so in the passover, in as much as the chief thing the passover (as well as the Lord's supper, has respect to and represents, is Christ's sufferings. But if on this account the same qualifications are requisite in both ordinances, then it would be as requisite that the partakers should have knowledge to discern the Lord's body (in Mr. Stoddard's sense of 1 Cor. xi. 29) in the passover, as in the Lord's supper. But this certainly is as difficult to suppose, as that they professed godliness: For how does