lows, 2. That by the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled, must be meant, the closing of the period in which the Gentiles have dominion over the land which contains the literal Jerufalem; and that then the Jews will be delivered from flaughter, will be ingathered from among the nations, will return to the land of Palestine, and will continue to inhabit and poffefs it as their inheritance, from the day of their return to the end of time. This fenfe agrees with the literal interpretation which providence hath given to the three foregoing prophecies; and is the only one which carries in it a complete reverfal of the present state of the Jews and their land. If this reverfal be not admitted, I do not fee any way in which this prophe cy can be interpreted, in a literal fenfe. The Jewish nation, in general, have an ardent defire to return to the land of Palestine, and will, therefore, be difpofed readily to embrace any favorable opportunity to return, which may prefent. As the Jews are a rich commercial people, and as their property is almoft wholly of the perfonal kind, they are at all times prepared to go back to the land which was given to their fathers. It is not difficult to conceive, that among the ambitious schemes of the Gentile nations, it may be for the felfifh intereft of fome one, or more, to deliver PaJeftine into their hands; and that on their entrance, a numerous any may be affembled to pillage and fubjugate them. Means may be ufed in the restoration of the Jews of which we have now no conception. It is not the defign of the author of the prophecies, to give to men beforehand, a very clear knowledge of the means by which the events predicted are to take place. ar The return of the Jews to the ancient Canaan does not imply the restoration of the Mofaic economy. If it implied this, it would follow, either that the Meffiah hath not appeared, or that a wrong interpretation has been given to the prophecies which hold up the future reftoration of Ifrael. The Jews may expect the renewal, and continuance, of their ancient Temple worfhip in all its parts, when returning to their land, but after the violent affault from the army of Gog is over, they with the fulness of the Gentiles, will be brought into the fame fold, and be united in Jefus of Nazareth as their common Shepherd. Then the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles will clearly fee the harmony of the Jewish and Chriftian difpenfations; and that the church into which all the nations are to come, is "built upon the foundation of the apoftles and prophets, Jefus Chrift himfelf being the chief corner-ftone." What holy joy will fill the hearts of God's people, whether Jews or Gentiles, when they unite in the covenant made with Abraham,' and jointly" partake of the root and fatnefs of the olive-tree !" We, Gentiles, who profefs to receive the Meffiah, have much guilt lying upon us, for our conduct towards God's ancient covenant people. We have thrown many ftumbling blocks in the way of their converfion to chriftianity. I can never forget the converfation which I had with an intelligent Jew, fome years fince. After he had gone into a confiderable detail of the fufferings of his nation, in the courfe of the prefent captivity, he faid, "If you who call yourfelves Chriftians have the benevolence which your Meffiah profefed, do not torture us with courts of Inquifition, nor wound us by contemptuous behaviour. Treat be not our heart's defire and us as fellow-men, and fellow-citizens. You Americans have opened a door for fuch friendly intercourfe between Jews and Gentiles, as had not been known fince our captivity. We hope that your example may influence other nations to alter their conduct towards us. We ask you to hear our objections against christianity with patience and candor. You acknowledge, with us, the divine authority of the law and the prophets. You interpret many parts of both in a very different manner from our Rabbies. You cannot think it strange that we are more difpofed to liften to them than to the teachers of Christianity. We have met with many things tending to prejudice us against this religion. By kind treatment from its profeffors, we may be led to examine it more impartially than we have done. Who knows, but that by free conference, the God of Abraham may open our eyes, if we are in an error, and incline us to embrace Jefus of Nazareth, as the Meffiah ?" Let the difciples of Chrift remember, that "to the Ifraelites pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the fervice of God, and the promises; whofe are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Chrift came, who is over all, God bleffed for ever." Tho' the wrath is come upon the Jews to the uttermoft, for killing the Lord Jefus, and their own prophets, and for perfecuting the Chriftians in the early ages, they are, as touching the election, beloved for the fathers' fakes." We must be strangers to the exercises of holy love, if we do not look upon the Ifraelites with tender compaffion, and if it prayer to God, that they may be faved. The predictions and promifes which refpect the future glory of the Jewish nation, muft animate the hearts of the followers of the Son of God. As they attend to the gracious defigns of the Redeemer towards that people, they must look forward with a pious ardor to the day when the Lord will “make Jerufalem a praife in the earth. Then the Lord will be her eyerlafting light, and the days of her mourning fhall be ended. Her people alfo fhall be all righteous; and they shall inherit the land forever. The Lord will haften it in his time." BENEVOLUS. FOR THE CONNECTICUT Evan- MESS'RS EDITORS, I FIND many agreeable things in your Magazine; tho' I muft confefs I have not been able to read it with all the complacency I anticipated. I expected to fee in it, ftated and ably defended, the effential doctrines of fcripture, fuch as the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity of Chrift, original fin, the depravity of human nature, the neceffity of regeneration, &c. which doctrines are objected a. gainst and denied by too many at the prefent day. You will greatly mistake me, if you hence conclude, that what I now fend you, concerning the divinity of Chrift, be by me reckoned an able defence of that truth; but it is the best I was able to exhibit, and if you fhould fee fit to infert it or any part of it in the Magazine, I am content, and if not I am content, if the public may be favored with a bet ter one. A On the Divinity of CHRIST. RIUS and SoCINUS, and many of their difciples even at this day, do in effect renew the attack which EBION and CERINTHUS of old made against the truth of the real and proper divinity of Chrift. This doctrine ap pears to me fo fundamental a truth in Christianity, that if it be fet afide and given up, I can fee no good foundation for the Chriftian Church, or indeed for the Chrif tian hope of falvation; for if he be but a mere man, a mere creature, though of the most exalted and excellent order and capacities conceivable, yet all his obedience must be due to him who is the author of it all; and fo nothing which Chrift did or fuffered can, as I fee, be of any avail to the falwvation of finners. There are fome who interpret fome fcripture expreffions, afcribing to Chrift his knowledge, power, &c. to mean that God communicated them to him as a creature of a most dignified and exalted order and capacity. But (with humility be it fpoken) God could not lend or impart to him, if a creature, his eternity, omnipotence, omnifcience, &c. There are many fcripture expreffions of and concerning Chrift, in his mediatorial character, which are to be understood in that reftricted fenfe and view, and are not to be confidered as fpoken of him in his highest character or divine nate; confounding of which is one great caufe of that fundamental mistake. In confidering of the divinity of Chrift, there are two things, I think, ought to prevail in our minds. One is, that it is a great defign of fcripture revelation, both in the old and new tetament, to bring perfons off from idolatry to the acknowledgment and worship of the only true and living God. Who can read, with any due attention, the old teftament, but muft fee that it was the great defign of the commandments, warnings, reprehenfions and counfels therein given to God's people that, forfaking all idolatry, they should acknowledge and worship Jehovah only as their God? Who can, with any due attention, read the new teftament, but must fee that a great and main defign of it was to recover perfons from the acknowledgement and worship of dumb idols, and to bring them to acknowledge, worship and love the only living and true God? The other thing which I think ought to have a prevailing influence upon our minds, while attending to this fubject, is that we and mankind, to whom the fcriptures are granted, will unavoidably be led into the groffeft idolatry, if Christ be not truly, really and properly God; forasmuch as therein fuch titles, attributes, works and worship are afcribed to him as can be due only to God. That God is the only adequate and fuitable object of religious worship, must be acknowledged by all, who profefs to believe natural or revealed religion. But as the divinity of Chrift is a truth specially of divine revelation, it will be incumbent on me to mention proof of it from fcripture. In John v. 23, we are expressly affured by our Saviour, that all men fhould honor the Son even as they honor the Father. And what lefs than divine honor, religious worship and obedience can be tho't due to the Father? and according to this text, what lefs can be due to Chrift? Baptizing in his name as well as that of the Father and the Holy Ghoft, Matthew xxviii. 19, must be an act of religious worship afcribed to him. St. Paul prayed to him, (whofe words are commonly used in public bleffings) 2 Corinthians xiii. 14. "The grace of the Lord Jefus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghoft, be with you all. Amen." And how often do we find, in the epiftles, that expreffion, "The grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift be with you; -be with thy fpirit, &c." Thomas religiously worshipped him, when he faid, John xx. 28. "My Lord and my God ;" and Chrift received that worship without chiding him in the least for it. The martyr Stephen, with his dying breath, worshipped him, when he said, Acts vii. 59. "Lord Jefus, receive my fpirit." And how of ten in the epiftles, and among the primitive Chriftians, is mention made of calling on the name of Jefus Chrift, both their Lord and ours? Now, would not this be grofs idolatry, if Chrift were not truly and effentially God? RIGHTEOUSNESS;" and Hebrews i. 10. "And thou, Lord, in the beginning haft laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." That the title Jehovah is there, by the apoftle, applied to Chrift, is very evident from what he fays in the two next foregoing verfes, in which he afcribes to Chrift works wrought and done by him which are poffible to God only to effect. In John i. 3. we read, "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made;" not made by him as an inftrument, but as an agent. What fhort of Almighty power could create out of nothing the heavens, earth and fea and all things therein? And can we fuppofe that God would impart Almighty power to any creature? What the apoftle fays, Coloffians i. 16, 17, concerning Chrift, takes away that and all fuch like cavils, against the divine nature or real divinity of Chrift: "For by him The title JEHOVAH is not to be were all things created, that are attributed to any creature; it is to in heaven, and that are in earth, be afcribed to God only. Pfalm vifible and invifible, whether they lxxxiii. 18. "That men may be thrones, or dominions, or prinknow that thou, whofe name alone cipalities, or powers all things is JEHOVAH, art the Moft High were created by him and for him: over all the earth." Indeed we And he is before all things, and find, Judges vi. 24, that "Gid- by him all things confift." Ineon built an altar there unto the deed in the verfe before, he is faid Lord, and called it Jehovah-Sha- to be," the image of the invisible lom." But we cannot confiftently God, the first born of every creafuppofe that the altar itself was Je- ture." By what the Apostle imhovah-Shalom, but that it was mediately fubjoins, he would not built to the honor of him who was ac- have us think as tho' Christ was a knowledged to be Jehovah-Shalom. mere creature when he fays, he Now we often find that title (in- was the first born of every creacommunicable to any creature) ap- ture; but that he is the efficient plied to Chrift. Instead of men- origin of all created exiftence.tioning the many particular places He can be no creature who is bewhere it is fo,it muft fuffice to men- fore all things;-he is no creature tion that in Jeremiah xxiii. 6. by whom all things were made, "And this is his name whereby vifible and invifible. Afk why we he fhall be called, THE LORD OUR believe the exiftence of God? Shall we not fay, that the works | we are affured there are three ; of creation and providence witnefs to the certainty of it? And have we not the like evidence of the divinity of Christ," who hath made all things, and by whom all things do confift?" In fcripture, divine attributes, proper to God only, are afcribed to Chrift. He is tiled, Jude 25, "The only wife God." It is the prerogative of God only to fearch and infallibly to know the heart. Jeremiah xvii. 10. This is afcribed to Chrift, John xxi. 17. "Lord, thou knowest all things: thou knowest that I love thee." He teftifieth from heaven, concerning himself, Revelation ii. 23. "I am he which fearcheth the reins and hearts." Who but an omniscient God knoweth all things; fearcheth the heart, and will finally judge the world and every thing moft fecret and retired from human and all created knowledge and view? Who but he that is almighty in power can raise the dead, compel all the nations of men (as well as the devils) to appear before his exalted throne of judgment; and oblige all, both high and low, to abide the decifion of the laft judgment, and to take up their everlafting abodes in the other world, according to the fentence he will then pronounce? He will then appear to be the mighty God himfelf, who, we are told in the 50th Pfalm, will judge the world. I might instance in other divine perfections and attributes afcribed to Chrift. Indeed if there be any one, there must be all the divine perfections and infinite attributes in him. The beloved Apostle faith, John v. 7. "There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghoft; and these three are It will not do for us or one." any to say there is only one; for not three and one in the fame fenfe. As to the divinity of Chrift, let us hear and regard his glorious teftimony from heaven concerning himfelf, Revelation i. 8. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, faith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” This is the Saviour revealed and offered to thee, O finner, in the gospel; but defpifed and rejected by thee, and how great is thy fin and danger in fo doing! O believ ing Chriftian, this is that Saviour in whom thou believeft, and to whom thou doft commit thyself in the way of gofpel faith and obedience; and how great is thy fafety and happiness in fo doing! To this only wife God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. PHILALETHES. |