life! The history of the Church, in all ages, abundantly shows that in the degree in which the doctrines of grace, so fully and clearly set forth in the ministry and writings of St. Paul, have been maintained and held forth by the Church, there have been "times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord."

CHAPTER VII.

TIMES OF REFRESHING IN THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES.

THE catholicity of the Gospel distinguishes it from the former dispensation of the law. Judaism, for special reasons, was national, local, and exclusive, as regarded other nations; unsocial in character and aspect. The reasons of this peculiarity will be found in the depravity of mankind; in their early and wide-spread apostasy from the knowledge and worship of the true God. Judaism was designed for the preservation of the knowledge and worship of the true God, till " the fulness of the time" should come, and Messiah should appear," in whom," it was promised, "all nations of the earth should be blessed," who should be "the light to enlighten the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel." For these important ends it pleased God, in mercy, early to separate one family-the family of Abraham;-one nation, of which Abraham was the father and head, from all others, to be the depositaries of his truth, among whom he would preserve the knowledge and worship of Himself; from whom the promised Messiah should arise, and through whom

* Luke ii. 32.

this saving knowledge should be communicated to the rest of the world. Having thus chosen and separated the Jews from all other nations to be unto Him "a peculiar people,"-" at sundry times and in divers manners," God imparted to them special revelations of his truth,-established his temple and worship in the midst of them,—and enjoined and secured their separation from every other people by special laws and peculiar rites, the badges to them of this peculiarity, and the pledges and emblems to them of a better dispensation, of "good things to come" in the days of the Messiah. The government of the nation was a Theocracy, and continued such till they sinfully desired, in imitation of other nations, to have a king set over them. God, in anger, gave them a king; but still vindicated his supremacy over them by special interpositions on their behalf while they remained faithful; or by special and immediate judgments when they became disobedient to his laws. The inspired Apostle gives, in few words, this glorious summary of Jewish privileges : "To them pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,—and of them, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." What marvel then that the Jews blended with feelings of nationality and patriotism, and the prejudice with which they regarded every other people, the idea that they were exclusively the * Rom. ix. 4, 5.

favourites of God, and the sole recipients of his blessing. The language of prophecy,—the very locality of prophetic imagery, -the special and miraculous preservation of their nation amidst the uprooting and overthrow of other mighty kingdoms,—all seemed to sanction their idea of exclusive privileges. The wide and marked difference between them and all other nations favoured this fond presumption. While over all other people was spread the darkness of idolatry and superstition, the inhabitants of Palestine possessed "the lively oracles of God," and the means of obtaining more sublime ideas of the nature, perfections, and government of Jehovah than the most renowned sages of the heathen world ever imagined and taught. To them the God of all the earth sustained a peculiar and local relation as the "God of Israel," their religion was Divine, their history was a history of miracles.

It is true that from the beginning, even in the covenant God made with Abraham, there was given a clear and distinct intimation of God's purpose of mercy to the Gentiles, which was often repeated by equally distinct utterances of their prophets; yet the Jews tenaciously clung to the idea that they were exclusively the people of God. The Gentiles, in their view, if in any degree objects of the Divine mercy, were left to the uncovenanted mercy of God. Even those Gentiles who renounced idolatry and embraced the worship of the true God were only partially admitted to the privileges of their temple worship;—" a middle wall of

partition" separated the court of the Gentiles from those more sacred parts of the temple in which Israelites alone were thought worthy to appear before God. They overlooked the fact, that, as one observes, "they were not intended to engross the Divine favour, but to be the mediums and diffusers of it. They were not only to be blessed, but to be blessings. Hence their being placed in the midst of the earth, that from them knowledge might be derived, and proselytes to revealed religion might be made; and that in the fulness of time 'out of Zion might go forth the Law, and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem;' and that the Great Supper, as our Lord calls it, and which was designed for the whole family of Adam, might be spread in the midst of the earth and be accessible to all."

The admission of the Gentiles, equally with the Jews, to the blessings and privileges of the Gospel is spoken of in the New Testament as a "mystery." The term so applied is not to be considered as denoting what is inexplicable or unintelligible, but as expressing what had not before been fully and clearly revealed. Thus St. Paul explains it when dwelling on this subject to the Ephesians:-"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 the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body,