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hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people;" Jer. xxxi., 31-33. As this covenant is said to be made with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, it was necessary that the gospel should be first preached to the Jews, so that the whole nation might enjoy the opportunity of entering into this covenant with God, agreeable to the stipulations which he had prescribed. Many of the natural seed of Abraham believed, and entered into these new covenant relations with God, while the greater part of the nation rejected the covenant through sin and unbelief; hence, God in his turn rejected them from its privileges and advantages, which, as St. Paul has shown, he had a perfect right to do. As a case in point to sustain his argument, the apostle refers to two instances, in the dealings of God with that people. He had formerly rejected both Ishmael and Esau from participating in the advantages of the Abrahamic covenant, and had prefered Isaac and Jacob, and had directed that the promised seed should be reckoned through them. That, in doing this, he had displayed his sovereign power, which, as the Lord of the universe, he had a perfect right to do. So, now, a parallel case had occurred, in the establishment of this new covenant; he received into it the believing Jews, and rejected from its privileges and advantages the unbelieving Jews, just as he formerly had received into the Abrahamic covenant Isaac and Jacob, and excluded from its privileges Ishmael and Esau. In the last instance, he only displayed the same sovereignty that he did in the two former instances. Here is a clear, forcible, and logical argument, which an unbelieving Jew would find difficult to repel.

Here, also, is the origin of St. Paul's figure of the Jewish olivetree. As this covenant was to be made with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, and as the natural seed of Abraham were the first to be admitted into it, under the figure of an olive-tree, St. Paul calls the Jews the natural branches, and represents the unbelieving Jews, who constitute the great body of that nation, as branches broken off, and the believing Gentiles, who were admitted into the covenant, as wild olive-branches grafted into this olivetree in their stead. St. Paul uses the words and phrases, rejected, cast off, broken off, stumbled, blinded, spiritual slumbers, diminution, and severity, all to express the simple idea that God had rejected the unbelieving Jews from the privileges and advantages of the new covenant, and also the reasons for that rejection. And this is the covenant into which the rejected seed of Abraham are to be received, when they are restored to the divine favor; the olive-tree into which they are to be inserted, when they obtain the favor of the Lord. Thus we hope that we have clearly proved, and fully elucidated, this part of our subject.

IV. But, in the further prosecution of our subject, there is another inquiry which calls for our consideration: that is, have the rejected and dispersed of Israel ever been brought in? To this in

That

quiry, it seems to me, we must return a negative answer. part of the Jewish nation who embraced the gospel, and are called by St. Paul the election, and are said to have obtained the favor of God, are never reckoned among the number of those who were cut off and rejected. "The election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." These blinded Jews, constituting the great body of that church and nation, were the persons whom God rejected for their obstinacy and unbelief. The Jews expected that the promised Messiah was to be their deliverer, and so far they were right. But that which they expected to be delivered from, at his appearing, was the power and dominion of strangers; in this they were mistaken. When our Saviour came, their reckoning was up; and the miracles which Jesus performed, persuaded them that it was he; but his obscure birth, and mean appearance, did not accord with that power and splendor they had fancied to themselves, he should come in. This, with his denouncing to them the ruin of their temple and state at hand, set the rulers against him, and held the body of the Jews in suspension till his crucifixion, and that gave a full turn of their minds from him. They had figured to their minds a mighty prince, at the head of their nation, setting them free from all foreign power, and themselves at ease and happy under his glorious reign. But when, at the passover, the whole people were witness of his death, they gave up all thought of deliverance by him. He was gone, they saw him no more, and it was past doubt a dead man could not be the Messiah, or deliverer even of those who believed in him. It is against those prejudices, that what St. Paul says, in Rom. x., 6-9, seems directed; wherein he teaches them that there was no need to fetch the Messiah out of heaven, or out of the grave, and bring him personally among them. For the deliverance he was to work for them, the salvation by him was salvation from sin, and condemnation for that; and that was to be had by barely believing and receiving him as the Messiah, their king, and that he was raised from the dead: by this they would be saved, without his personal presence among them. But this view of the subject they entirely rejected, and became more and more obstinate and hardened in unbelief. Hence, St. Paul declares, that they "Both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they pleased not God, and are contrary to all men; forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins always, for the wrath is come upon them to the utmost ;" 1 Thes. ii., 15, 16. This Epistle was written in the year of our Lord fifty-two, and that to the Romans in fifty-eight, and this continued to be their general character down to the year seventy, when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Roman army; when an end was put to the Jewish polity, and they themselves carried captive into all nations.

After this terrible calamity happened to that nation, the survivors still remained impenitent, incorrigible, and unbelieving. Hence, Jus

tin Martyr says of them: "That after their country was destroyed, and their city laid waste, they repented not, but proceeded still in their execrations of Christ, and of all that believed in him;" Dial. cum. Trypt., p. 335. And Tertullian adds: "That seeing from the time of Tiberius to Vespasian they repented not, their land was made desolate, and their cities burned with fire." Justin Martyr declares again in his apology, written in the year of our Lord one hundred and forty, that they were in all places, "As great enemies to the Christians as the heathens were, and as ready to torment and kill them, when they could do it; and that this was evident from the last Jewish war, in which their captain, Barchochebas, commanded only the Christians to be tormented, if they refused to deny, and to blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ;" p. 72. From this period to the days of Constantine, the fathers generally represented them as a nation whose ears were shut, and their hearts hardened; declaring, "That the Scriptures had clearly foretold they should be disinherited, and fall off from the grace of God." Origin testifies, "That God had turned his providence from the Jews to the Gentiles; that they were wholly deserted, and they retained nothing of what before was venerable among them, nor any footsteps of the divine presence with them; that after the crucifixion of our Lord, they were perfectly deserted, and not to be converted till the end of the world" Adv. Celsum., 1. 2, p. 62. Tertullian says: "That from the time they crucified their Lord, God had taken from them the prophet, wise men, and the Holy Spirit, and had left them destitute of his grace; and that only at his second coming he should be received by them who had thus rejected him;" Adv. Marcion, 1. 3, c. 23. And from the days of Constantine down to the present period, the same blindness has remained upon this people, and they have cherished the same enmity to Christ, and hostility to the Christian religion, as did their forefathers.

If, then, the rejected Jews, who were cast off for their infidelity, have not yet been brought in, the prophecies respecting their conversion to the Christian religion, and their restoration to the divine favor, remain to be accomplished. And this event has been as clearly and distinctly foretold by the prophets, and especially by St. Paul, as any thing in the Bible. Indeed, these things have been stated with so much clearness and precision in the holy Scriptures, it is difficult to perceive how any man can believe the Bible and deny them; for St. Paul as fully and as distinctly asserts, that the unbelieving Jews, who were cut off and rejected from the advantages and privileges of the new covenant, for their blindness and infidelity, shall be converted to the Christian faith, and restored to the divine, when the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, as words can convey ideas; and we might as well deny the whole Scripture testimony as to deny this doctrine. It is not contended that the Jews are to be brought in, in a state of carnality and unbelief; but that they, through faith, shall embrace the Christian religion, and,

then, at their conversion, they are to be married to the Lamb, and so again become the people of God. This is the doctrine so clearly and plainly taught by St. Paul, and serves as a key to unlock the prophecies respecting this singular people. Hence, we infer that the world cannot be destroyed till all the prophecies and promises respecting this people are accomplished, and, consequently, that it will not be destroyed in eighteen hundred and forty-three.

ARTICLE V.

The New Testament Preacher.-By Elder E. Shaw.

Ir is true, beyond all reasonable contradiction, that the ministry of the church forms its character, and, to a great degree, moulds its sentiments. Whether we look at the Catholic or Protestant church, this truth is apparent. Long established errors are perpetuated, and new ones are introduced, everywhere, and at any time, provided the ministry is strongly and perseveringly engaged in them. So, also, on the other hand, reform will certainly prevail, and old truth will be maintained, if the ministry is found firmly and unflinchingly engaged in behalf of it. Scripture, reason, and observation, combine to establish immovably these facts.

If such are the results of the character and sentiments of the Christian ministry, whether they be good or bad, then surely it is of immense importance that the ministry be of the right kind, and that the true standard be clearly presented, and every means employed to place it on a right foundation, and to so mould it, that its influence may produce such effects as are clearly shown in the word of God to have followed the labors and influence of the primitive gospel preachers.

It is undeniable that there are errors in the church, and among the ministry, and that these have been brought in through the influence of erroneous standards. Standards of human creation admit nothing to rise higher than themselves; therefore, a ministry moulded by human standards must necessarily bring in and perpetuate error, perversion, and distraction, among the people of God.

But we are thrown back upon first principles. Human standards are death to the ministry, and ruin to the church. They first divide, then destroy. To none of them can we safely go; in none of them can we safely confide. But when we turn our eyes to the New Testament, there we find the truth; the unadulterated truth, as taught from heaven. The model is here given for every preacher of the gospel; and the standard is perfect. We may not fully understand this standard, owing to the prejudice of education, and the darkness of the human understanding; still, it is perfect,

and so far as we conform to it, we are right beyond all controversy. Besides, the character of the gospel preacher, there given, is plain, and not hard to be understood, provided we receive it in its obvious sense, shorn of all mysticism. But, admitting every objection that can be raised, it still remains a truth, that we can find no certainty relative to the doctrine or character of the preacher by having recourse to human rules; and it is equally true, that all we gain from the New Testament on these points is correct, and according to the will of God; and all the influence exerted by the preacher whose doctrine and character are derived from this source, is invariably good, and promotes the best interests of the church and of the world.

With these facts before us, who can but see and feel that the true minister of Christ must be formed and moulded in all things according to the directions given in the New Testament? Such an one is emphatically a New Testament preacher.

As the design of this article is to impress more deeply, both upon preachers and churches, the vast importance of a scriptural improvement in the ministry, in order to a proper advancement in holiness in the churches, I shall call attention to several directions to preachers, as given in the holy oracles of the New Testament; because nothing can make a New Testament preacher, but for him to be conformed to that holy book, and to feel, to act, and to think in strict accordance with its divine directions. Such a man, and no other, is to be regarded as a New Testament preacher.

I. He that would preach the gospel as the ancients did, must first be partaker of its benefits, in his own soul. Christ first made men his disciples, and then sent them to preach. Paul was first converted, then entered upon the work of the ministry. "The husbandman that laboreth must be first partaker of the fruits." this point is conceded on all hands, these brief remarks may suffice. II. The New Testament preacher must possess good natural capabilities. 1. Without a door of utterance he cannot speak to edification, instruction, or comfort; therefore, he must be able to speak with a good degree of fluency and distinctness. This is a natural gift with many; and where it exists in nature, it may be greatly improved by use, and by observing certain rules; but where no gift of utterance exists, there can be no hope that such an one is designed of God for a preacher. 2. He must possess a mind, to a good degree, strong and discriminating. There are men who evince their piety, and who speak with fluency; but still their minds are so weak, and their judgment so imperfect, that they are never capable of performing the duties of a pastor; and even as evangelists, they can never be safely trusted alone, but must be under the watchful eye of some wise and prudent man of God; or, by some injudicious management, they will build again the things they have destroyed, and throw into confusion what a little good judgment might have continued peaceful and prosperous. A little

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