Ver. 27. Ver. 29. 126 Reflections on the Calling of the Gentiles. Sect. 21. the Name of the true God was so long unknown, we should have the Honour of being called bis Children! Oh that we may indeed be fo, not Ver. 26. only by an external Profession, but by regenerating Grace ! May we be of that Remnant, that little Remnant, which shall be saved, when Num-, bers, countless as the Sand of the Sea, which had only the Name of God's Ver. 28. Ifrael, shall perish, even in the Day, when bis Work shall be cut short in Righteousness! Blessed be God, that there is a Seed remaining. It is the Preservation of the People, among which it is found ; and had in not been found among us, we had probably long since been made a Seat of Desolation. May it increase in the rising Age, that the Pledges of our continued Peace and Prosperity may be more assured, till our Peace be like a River, and our Salvation like the Waves of the Sea. It will be so, if we be awakened seriously to inquire, how we may justified before GOD, and seek that invaluable Blessing in the Way here Ver. 31, 32. pointed out; if we seek it, not as by the Works of the Law, but by Faith in Chrift, as the Lord our Righteousness. He hath, in this Respect, been to many a Stone of fumbling, and a Rock of Offence. May Divine Grace teach us the Necessity of building upon him, of resting upon him the whole Stress of our eternal Hopes. Then shall they not link into Difappointment and Ruin ; then shall we not flee away ashamed in that awful Day, when the Hail shall fweep away the Refuge of Lies, and the Waters of that final Deluge of Divine Wrath fall overflow every Hiding. place, but that which God hath prepared for us in his own Son. be Ver. 33 The Apostle shews, that GOD hath offered Pardon and Sal vation on the same equitable, gracious, and easy Terms to all, tho? Israel by a bigotted Attachment to their own Law, rejected it. Rom. X. 1,-- ,13. Sect. 22. Y.COM Rom. X. 1. ROMANS X. 1. ROMANS X. 1: OU see, my Brethren, to what this Dif- BRethren, my Heart's Desire and Prayer to course of mine tends, in which I have been representing Faith in Chỉist, as the only Method to prevent our Shame and Ruin, without the Exception of any, whether:Jews or Gentiles, who should reject him. I know, how un5 kind 127 The Zeal af. "Ifrael for GOD not according to Knowledge ; God før Israel is, that they kind and unjust an Interpretation may be put on Sect. 22. might be fayed. such an Affertion, tho' thus supported by the Sa- before GOD concerning Israel, is, for its present 2 For I bear them Re- and eternal Salvation and Happiness; which I cord, that they have a Zeal with as fincerely as my own. For I am ready 2 own Observation and Experience, that they have of which it leads them into the most fatal Mil- own Righteousness Nature, the Extent of his Law, and the Mehave not submitted them- thod, which in Consequence thereof he hath efselves unto the Righteous- tablished, for the Justification of a Sinner ; and ness of God. seeking with great Diligence to establish, and shoar , Obedience in a due Subordination to that. 4 For Christ is the Enj This is the most fatal Error that can be ima- 4 of the Law for Highteoul nela gined; for how insensible foever Israel in gene ral may be of it, 'tis on the whole most certain, that Chrift [is] the End of the Law for Righteoul 12efs their (a). Observation of the Precepts or Expiations of their Law.] Many Writers, and efpecially the late Dr. Sherlock, in his Book of the Knowledge of Christ, have been much mistaken in the Representation they have made of the Pharifaical Righteousness, as if it conlilled merely in substituting ceremonial Observances instead of moral Duties. The Pharisees certainly inculcated the external Duties of Morality, how much foever they might themfelves fail in observing them, or rest merely in outward Acs ; but they trusted in legal Expiations to procure the Pardon of those Evils which might happen ; and the Composition of inay be allowed the Expression, constituted the Righteousness, which they went about snoces, to eftablish, or prop up, decrepit as it was. these, if I 128 They being ignorant of the only way to obtain Righteousness, Sect: 22. ness to every one that believeth (6), that is, it is the mess to every one that be lieveth great Scope and Design of the Law to bring Rom. X. 4. Men to believe in Christ for Righteousness and Life, and its ceremonial and moral Precepts and Cunstitutions most harmoniously center in this. For Mofes defcribeth the Righteousness which is [when he saith] again and again, (Lev. xviii. 5. which doeth those Things, compared with Deut. xxvii. 26.) the Man who fall live by them. doth them all live in and by them (C); that is, the Man who perfectly observes these Precepts in eve' ry Particular, and in every Punctilio, he and he alone, if such a person there be, may claim Life and Salvation by them. Now this is a way of Justification, which, when the Law has once been broken, becomes absolutely impossible to 6 But the Righteousness 6 the Transgressor. But the Righteousness, which which is of Faith, fpeaketh is by Faith, Speaketh a very different Language, on this wise, Say not in and may be considered as expressing itself thus, thine Heart, who shall af cend into Heaven? (that is, (if I may be allowed to borrow the Words of the to bring Chrift down from great Jewish Legislator, when representing the above) Plainness and Perspicuity of his "Law; Deut. xxx. 11, -14.) “ Say not in thine Heart - who Mall afcend into Heaven, that is, as I may in “ this View accommodate the Passage, to conduct Cbrift down with him [from thence,] to teach ) thority; here. (b) The End of the Law.] The Scope of it; as Elsner shews on this place, that Ieros fignifies, he paraphrases the Words, no one can fulfil the Law till he believes in Chrift. But that, how true foever, (Compare Chap. viii. 2,-4.) seems not the chief View of the Apostle (c) The Man that doth them, Mall live by them.] The Sinai-Covenant made no 'express Provision for the l'ardon of any sin, deliberately and wickedly committed against it; and fo ed a Covenant of Works: Tho' the Dispensation of Moses contained some further Intimation of the Covenant of Grace, which was made with Abraham, and was quite a dis , tina Thing from the Law.” And the Apostle builds so much on these Thoughts here, and elsewhere, that it will be of Importance to render them familiar to the Mind, and to trace the Evidence and Illustration of them in the Mofaick Writings. Which may be obtained by Jew and Greek, thro' Faith in Chrift. 129 thoritys: so that there is no more Room to puzzle Sect. 22. ourselves about Difficulties, or to wish for a Pow er of doing, what to human Skill or Strength is Rom. X. 8. 8 But what faith it? The impossible. But what faith be. afterwards ? thy Mouth, and in thy even these Words, fo remarkably applicable to Heart: That is the Word the Subject before us; “ the Word is nigh to thee of Faith which we preach, (even in thy Mouth, and in thine Heart; ealy “ to be understood, easy to be remembered, and Calè with Relation to the Word of Christian Faith, 9 That if thou shalt con- which we preach. For God hath given a very 9 Heart; with a vital and influential Faith, that , in Proof aggravated soever thy past Sins may have been. and with the Mouth Confession is made to Salvation, defec- on in Reference to Christ, as in the forecited Text, (Isai. xxviii. 16.) faith, “ Every one that believe “ ashamed, and put to Confusion, in any imagi- Every one without 12 tween Jew and Greek. For the same Lord of all, upon all that call upon him. VOL. IV 130 Reflections on the clear Knowledge me. bave in the Gospel! Sect. 22. upon him, imparting to them all the fame Bler: sings of his Providence and Grace: For wboa 13 For whosoever thall . I MP Roν. Ε Μ Ε Ν Τ. ET our Hearts, after the Example of St. Paul here before us, be Ver. 2. Ver. 3. Ver. 4. Ver. 6, 7 us be earnestly interceding with God for their Salvation. Where we Great Reason have we to adore the Divine Goodness, and to congra- be cordial ; and then it will be open and couragious, whatever Sacrifices Ver. 9, 10. we may be called to make. Believing on him we shall not be ashamed; calling on bis Name we fall be saved; tho' we can meet with nothing but (d) Invoke the Name of che Lord, &c.]. Bishop Pearson argues at large from hence, that if SECT, Ver, 8. Ver. 5. |