is, that they are not intended to express the moral character of those to whom they are applied, but merely a state of privilege and favour, or a want of these advantages. Thus, when some are called holy, saints, the children of God, and the sons of God, we are not to understand by these terms good men, but such only as were members of the Jewish polity; and in consequence of this the adopted children of God, and in a state of favour with him; nor, on the other hand, when others are called unclean, sinners, aliens, and enemies, are we to understand hereby men of bad character, but merely such as, being given to the practice of idolatry, were cast out of the divine favour. That the terms are not to be so understood is evident hence, that they are applied without exception to whole bodies of men: the whole Jewish nation are called saints, and denominated holy, and the whole gentile world sinners, and enemies; which, if understood of their moral characters, can in neither case be true; for it is too much to say of any large body of men, that they are all virtuous and good, or all vicious and wicked.

The second circumstance to be observed is, that these terms are employed by God himself, or by divinely authorised teachers acting in his name, by Moses and the other prophets of the Old Testament. It may, therefore, be justly said of them, as the apostle does in the text, that they are such as the Holy Ghost, or the Holy Spirit, teacheth a man

to use.

Having now considered what were the peculiar circumstances of the Jews in respect to the divine Being, and the terms used to express them, I come, in the second place, to consider on what ground they can be applied to Christians.

It must be remembered, then, that the circumstances of the first Christians, when converted to Christianity, bore a considerable resemblance to those of the children of Israel when rescued from Egypt, and placed under the Mosaic institution; for the Gentiles were sunk into idolatry, and into a total ignorance of religion; nor was there a prospect of any remedy for these evils. When, therefore, they were recovered from this state by the preaching and miracles of Jesus Christ and his apostles, they night, with much propriety, be said to be saved, delivered, bought, purchased, and redeemed, in the senses in which these terms had been applied before to the recovery of Israel from the gods, as well as the bondage of Egypt. Gentiles were now placed under a new constitution of things; they had new laws for the regulation of their conduct, new hopes and fears to animate their obedience. Their situation is as much superiour to what it was before, as life is superiour to a state of insensibility, and the body of a living man to that of a dead one. They may, therefore, be said to be created and made. The being who brings them into this new state, may be said to beget them and to be their father, and they to be his sons and daughters, his children and family.

As they were brought out of this state, not by any efforts or application of their own, but in consequence of the messages which were sent them by God in the persons of the apostles, they may be said to be invited and called, as the children of Israel were. As there were many nations to whom the gospel was not sent, and many, to whom it was preached, rejected it, those who enjoyed the favour of divine revelation, and whose hearts were inclined to embrace it, may be said to be chosen or elected, and hence called his elect. Having been once enemies by the practice of idolatry, by renouncing it and professing Christianity, they may be said to be reconciled and brought into the state of friends.The Jews became sanctified by the presence of God among them in the tabernacle and temple, and by the prophets. When the Gentiles, therefore, were favoured with the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, communicated by the laying on of the hands of the apostles, they might be regarded as sanctified likewise, and as much entitled to the appellation of saints as the children of Israel could be. The great similarity, then, between the circumstances of the converted Gentiles, and those of the descendants of Abraham under Moses and the prophets, would naturally lead the apostles to consider them as holding the same relation to the divine Being as their ancestors had held, and to apply to them the same terms and phrases. And in regard to their countrymen the Jews, if, by the corruption of their law,

and the traditions of the elders, they had cast themselves out of the divine favour, and reduced themselves to a condition little superiour to that of idolatrous Gentiles, or that of their fathers in Egypt, the Gospel was as great a favour to the one as to the other, and both might be represented by the same strong terms. The circumstances, then, both of converted Jews and converted Gentiles, bore so near a resemblance to those of the children of Israel, in the early period of their history, as fully to justify the application of the same terms to the former as to the latter.

Let us now sce, whether this resemblance was observed by the first teachers of Christianity, and whether they adopted the language, which we have shown to be fully authorized. We have seen why the Jews were said to be chosen and elected of God: similar reasons induced the apostles to represent the Gentiles as now elected to partake of the same privileges once enjoyed by the Jews. The apostle Paul says; "who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect?" meaning thereby Gentiles converted to the Christian faith. The same apostle tells Timothy, "that he endures all things for the elect's sake." Peter addresses his epistle "to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galația, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God."

We have seen the term saved applied to the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and to their con

version from the worship of false Gods to that of Jehovah. The same form is applied in a similar manner to the conversion of Gentiles to the profession of the Christian doctrine. Thus Paul says to the Corinthians, that "the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved," i. e. recovered from heathenism, "it is the power of God;" to the Ephesians, that "it is by grace that they are saved through faith," i. c. by

the favour of God and the exercise of faith in Christ they have been recovered from the state of idolaters. Of the Jews he complains to the Thessalonians, that they forbade him to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved, or converted. That in these passages the apostle speaks of a recovery from heathenism, and not of deliverance from the punishments threatened to the wicked in a future life, or final salvation, is evident from this circumstance, that he represents the salvation of which he speaks as already accomplished, they are now saved, as in the passage above quoted, and in that which follows, "who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, according to his own purpose and grace." The same thing may likewise be proved from the following text, where the apostle is speaking of God, "who," he says, "will have all men to be saved," i. e. recovered from Judaism and idolatry to the belief of the Gospel; for it is immediately added, "and to come to the knowledge of the truth," be