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that included all other Nations befides the culium. Even thofe Nations who ufed Circ cifion, yet in God's account are reckoned Uncircumcifed. So it appears concerning. gypt and Edom: They are faid to be uncirc cifed, Jer. ix. 26. Yet the Egyptians ufed as feveral Heathen Authors witnefs: And Idumæans, as the Pofterity of Abraham. T meaning therefore of the Prophet must be the in God's account, their Circumcifion was r koned for Uncircumcifion, because it did not title them to any of the Favours by him gran ed to circumcifed Perfons. And I am apt think, that it was from this known Practic the Jews in their dealing with these other a cumcifed Nations, that the Apoftle ufes th very Phrase against the Jews themselves wh reckoned on their Circumcifion independently o their obfervation of God's Law, that their Cr cumcifion alfo fhould be made Uncircumcifio Rom. ii. 25. as it was to thofe Nations who ob ferved Circumcifion as a civil, or even as a rel gious Rite, without any pretenfions to the La of God by Mofes. This does withal clear the fame Apostle's Reafoning, Gal.v.3. where he tells us,that he that was circumcifed was a debtor tod the whole Law. The obvious meaning is, that their not profeffing to obferve the Law of Mofes was the reason why these Gentile Circumcifions did not intitle Men to the Privileges defigned by God in the Covenant fealed to Abraham by Cir cumcifion: No, not even in thofe Nations who had this double Plea to thefe Privileges, that they were defcended from Abraham, and that they retained the ufe of Circumcifion which he had undertaken for himself and his Defcendents, as a condition to intitle them to that Covenant. Yet even these were excluded

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from the Privileges of the Temple worship, till they would intitle themselves to them by a more complete Profelytifm whereby they muft oblige themselves to obferve the whole Law as well as that particular command of - Circumcifion. Till then their Circumcifion was, in the Difcipline of the Temple reckoned for Uncircumcifion, that Difcipline excluding them as much from the Privileges of the CovenantCircumcifion as if they had been really uncircumcifed. This therefore being fo in the cafe of thofe Circumcifed Nations, the Apostle warns even thofe Jews themselves, who fo boafted of their own obfervation of that one Precept of Circumcifion, and yet were fo negligent in obferving other Precepts of the fame Law, that they alfo might, by the fame reafon, expect, that their own Circumcifion alfo might, by God, be reckoned for Uncircumcifion. I know very well, that Circumcifion was the initiatory Ceremony ufed at their admiffion to their cove nanting Stipulations, and therefore very properly understood as an undertaking the performance of all that was required on their patt of the Covenant. So certainly it was with the native Ifraelites. And this I therefore take to be the true reafon, why the fame obligations to perform the whole Law was expected from all who pretended to the fame Privileges with the native Ifraelites, as well as their Circumcifion. Thus therefore it appears, that under the name of Uncircumcifed in this legal fenfe, all other Nations of the World, befides the Ifraelites, were comprehended, as well thofe that bad, as those that had not the use of Circumcifion.

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§. XXXV.

The fame was alfo implyed in the othe And as it was Phrafe of mingling the Holy Seed. The Ho a mingling of Seed was, as I have fhewn, appropriated to the Holy Seed. the Defcendents from the boly Patriarchs. This is the account given of it by the Helleniftica Author of the Book of Tobit. This was a Privilege no other Nation in the World could then pretend to, without a legal Incorporation into that particular Nation. And it is clea from Teftimonies of the Canonical Books, that no other Nation in the World was then a counted holy by God befides that only Nation of the Jews. Šo God frequently tells us. They were a peculiar Treafure to him above all Per ple, a Kingdom of Priests, and an holy Nation, Exod. xix. 6. What Nation is there fo great, who hath God fo nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? Deut. iv. 7. God made them high above above all Nations which he had made, in praife, and in name, and in honour, and that they might be an holy People to the Lord their God, Deut. xxvi. 19. What one Nation in the Earth is like thy People, even like Ifrael, whom God went to redeem for a People to himfelf? 2 Sam. vii. 23. r Chron. xvii. 21. He hath not dealt fo with any Nation, Pfal. cxlvii. 20. Many 0ther places there are to the fame purpofe, implying that Holiness was the privilege of the true Peculium. This being fo, it was impof fible for them to contract Marriages with any other Nation whatfoever, without mingling the Holy Seed, that is, without mingling it with that which was Unholy, because all other Nations were fo accounted by God himfelf, befides his own Ifraelites. The very act of Confecration is ufually expreffed in the Scriptures, as a feparation of the thing fo confe

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crated from common ufes. So the Confecration of the Levites is called a feparating them from the Congregation of Ifrael to bring them near to God, Numb. xvi. 9. Deut. x. 8, 9. And the Confecration of Aaron is likewife called a Separation, I Chron. xxiji. 13. So alfo the Confecration of the Temple Musicians, 1 Chron. XXV. I. The fame is the ftyle concerning the Confecration of a Nazarite, Numb. vi. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 12, 13, 21. And the Head of his Confecration, v. 9. is the fame with the Head of his Separation, v. 18. So for more eminent degrees of Holiness within the Holy Seed themfelves. The fame Phrafe is ufed concerning that Confecration by which the Holy Seed, of which I am speaking, became holy. Thus Mofes: So fhall we be feparated, I and thy People, from all the People that are upon the face of the Earth, Exod. xxxiii. 16. And ye fhal! be boly unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and bave fevered you from other People, that ye fhould be mine, Lev. xx. 26. I am the Lord your God, which have feparated you from other People, v. 24. The duty of Holiness on their part anfwered the Holiness to which God had been pleased to admit them. For God's Holinefs is, in very many places, given as a reafon why they alfo ought to be holy. As therefore Ged had made them holy by feparating them in his care from all Nations of the Earth, by dealing with them fo as he had not dealt with any other Nation: So the Holiness, which was their duty, must be fuppofed to oblige them alfo to Separate themselves from all those fame Nations from whom God had been pleafed to Separate them, that is, from all other Nations whatsoever. So therefore this word must be understood in Ezra and Nehemiah, in their atH 2

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§. XXXVI.

The fame Reafonings hold under the Go

ternal Com

tonement for their mingling the Holy Seed. The reafon, at least, holds univerfally, that they muft have feparated from all Wives and Chil dren of other Nations, if they would have God own them for his own peculiar People.

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So it was in the old Peculium. And the Rea foning in the New Teftament plainly fuppofes, that the cafe is the fame in the New Peculium fpel, concern alfo. I do not mean that all Nations but one, ing all who are whilst they continue in their National Diftin but of the ex- tions, are, in God's account, unclean, as the munion of the cafe was then. That confinement was indeed true Church. against the whole defign of the Revelations of the Gospel, by which the new Peculium was fettled. But, concerning the external Body of the new Peculium, as confederated by our Sacraments, the fame Reafonings are allowed in the New Teftament that were made ufe of concerning the Ifraelitish Nation in the Old This I have fhewn in the forementioned Paf fages of St. Paul's Epiftles to the Corinthians. Yet this could not have been, unless this Body had fucceeded the old Peculium in that greateft privilege of all, of being the only holy Body in the World; which must confequently make all Marriages out of this Body, to be a ming. ling the Holy Seed with that which was in God's account, unholy. Accordingly, all the Epithets of the old Peculium are by St. Peter afcribed to the Orthodox Communion. They are called a chofen Generation, a Royal Priesthood, an Holy Nation, a peculiar People, 1 St. Pet. ii. 9. Yet in this Holy Nation there were fome who were redeemed out of every Kindred, and Tongue, and People, and Nation, Rev. v. 9. Why are they ftill called a Nation, but to let us understand that all the privileges which belonged to the old Peculium as a fingle Nation, agreed alfo to

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