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No. 20.]

THE

AND

LITERARY REGISTER.

No. II. FOR OCTOBER, 1818.

Apostolical Preaching considered, in an Examination of St. Paul's Epis tles; by the Rev. J.B. Sumner, M.A.

A work with this title has lately appeared in England, and excited considerable attention. A review of it, from an English publication, was inserted in a former number of the Journal. The author discusses, with so much perspicuity and candour, the various important topics which are the subjects of St. Paul's Epis

tles, that we think we shall advance the cause of Christian truth by inserting the several treatises of which the work consists.

ON PREDESTINATION.

IN making predestination the first subject of my inquiry, I am not influenced by the authority of the powerful reasoner who built up, from this foundation, the system of the ology known by his name. The example of our own Church has a higher claim to imitation; who, in her Articles, considers this doctrine separately, as a speculation distinct from the essential points of the Christian faith. In this, too, she has only followed the superior authority of St. Paul: who, in the most systematic and doctrinal of all his Epistles, does not enter upon predestination as a fundamental article, nor introduce it till he has discussed the subjects of natural corruption, grace, and justification. From this example the conduct of Calvin and the divines at Dort makes a remarkable variation. But in the present case, it seems proper to set out from this point, because, if predestination is preached by St. Paul, and ought to be preached by those who profess to follow him, this will at VOL. II.

[VOL. II.

once decide most of the other disputable questions. If the Almighty had no other purpose in creating mankind than the display of his own glory; if the eternal condition of every indi vidual was decreed immutably before the foundation of the world; or even if the sacrifice of Christ extended to the elect alone, and the rest of mankind remain under the imputation of Adam's sin; there need be no farther dispute concerning the degree of human corruption, or the power and efficacy of grace; and the only interest which the Scriptures retain, will be to furnish matter of inquiry into the mode which God has employed in accomplishing the purpose of his sovereign will.

It is necessary to premise, that I shall not attempt to fathom the depths of a subject, which seems likely always to exercise, and always to elude, the efforts of human reason. Every reflecting mind must acknowledge, that "known unto God are all his works from the beginning" that he not only foresaw the future actions of mankind through all the series of ages, but foresaw them so infallibly, as to render them the instruments of his plans in the government of the world. The sacred writers make very familiar use of this prescience, in order, as it would seem, to keep up an habitual conviction that nothing is done, or can be done, without the divine permission: and they sometimes express this sentiment in terms which, taken singly, convey the idea of appointment, The Old Testament abounds with phrases to this effect; and many such are found in the New: as where it is declared, that it was not "given" to all the Jews to understand the words of eternal life: that "the Lord added

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daily to the church such as should be saved:" that" as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed:" that "certain men had crept into the church unawares, who were before of old ordained unto this condemnation." Since the existence and activity of evil spirits is revealed in the Scriptures, it became the more necessary to give frequent assurance that God not only inspires the virtue, but restrains the wickedness of mankind, and renders their evil passions subservient to his eternal counsels.*

With these facts before our eyes, there must always be a tendency in some minds, to associate the notion of absolute decrees with such infallible foreknowledge and every candid reasoner will confess a difficulty which is not likely to be cleared up on this side the grave, in reconciling the divine prescience with the free agency of man. But what is impossible with men, is possible with God. And those who deny this possibility, by limiting the power of the Creator to the bounds of their own understanding, are the real adversaries of his glory.

With this impression of the nature and difficulty of the subject, I turn to wards the consideration of St. Paul's doctrine upon it. And although the passages which must be brought under discussion, will necessarily lead to a declaration of my own idea of the right interpretation of them, still I would wish it to be remembered, that I do not profess to argue against predestination as believed in the closet, but as taught from the pulpit; in short, that the only inquiry I have in view, is, whether a Christian minister is countenanced by St. Paul in inculcating the doctrine of irrespective de

crees.

That doctrine has been always thought to derive its main support from the Epistle to the Romans. The

*In some cases this object is kept out of sight; in others, it is evident: as Acts, ii. 22. "Jesus of Nazareth, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknow ledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." Also 1

Peter ii. 8. “ whereunto also they were appointed.”

Apostle there declares, that those whom God "foreknew he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son; moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified." viii. 29, 30.

Those who deem it reasonable to deduce a doctrine which involves in its consequences the dealings of the Almighty towards the whole human race from a single passage, find it an easy process to acquiesce in the tremendous simplicity of the Calvinistic scheme on the support of these expressions. It is not surprising, however, that others should think it more respectful, more conformable to the magnitude of the subject, to pause and inquire, whether some part of that idea which the Apostle's words excite, has not adhered to them in the course of their passage through schools of theology; and whether his appeal to predestination, and the divine foreknowledge in this passage, cannot be fairly accounted for by a consideration of the circumstances, character, and actual situation of the persons to whom the Epistle was addressed.

Of these persons, an unusually large proportion consisted of Jewish converts. The Jews were very numerous at Rome: and from the circumstance of the majority of the earliest converts belonging to that nation by birth, it probably arose that the Christians were chiefly known and spoken of there as a denomination of Jews; and that the rival sects became companions in the same misfortune, and were involved in the same persecution under Nero.

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Now, it is notorious, that nothing in the new dispensation was a greater stumbling-block to the Jews, than its grand and leading feature, the termination of their own exclusive privilege by the adoption of Gentiles. A people who had for ages alone enjoyed a knowledge of the Creator; who, in order to preserve the revelation which gave them that knowledge, had been separated from all the rest of the world by the peculiarity of their civil and religious institutions; had

naturally imbibed with the very nourishment of their infancy an association of prejudice against the children of idolatry, which the first generation of converts could never wholly unlearn.:

This accounts for the extraordinary importance which is attached to the universality of the Gospel dispensation throughout the historical books of the New Testament. This accounts for the Baptist's prophetic threat: "Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”* To this the hymn of Zacharias alludes: "The dayspring from on high has visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death :"+ and that of Simeon still more emphatically: "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; to be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." This again affords the moral of three striking parables of our Saviour: in which he assures his unbelieving hearers, that "the lord of the vineyard will come and destroy the wicked husbandmen, and will give the vineyard unto others" that the labourers who had been latest hired should have an equal recompense with the first; and that since" they which were bidden to the wedding were not worthy," guests should be supplied from the highways and hedges." Lastly, notwithstanding these and mumberless other intimations, it required the solemnity of a very remark able vision to draw from Peter the acknowledgment which reason and matural religion spontaneously avow: Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; but, in every nation, he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him." It is a natural conséquence. from these considerations, that, "in an Epistle to the Roman believers, the point to be endeavoured after by St. Paul, was to reconcile the Jewish

* Matt. iii. 9. * Luke ii. 32:

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† Luke i. 78. $ Acts x. 34.

converts to the opinion that the Gentiles were admitted by God to a parity of religious situation with themselves." In order to effect this, it was necessary for him to enter upon the grounds of national election: that is, of its being allowed by the constitution of the world, that certain nations should have great advantages over others, both in their natural and moral circumstances; some of which had been hitherto very exclusively dispensed in favour of the Jews. Accordingly he refers this privilege entirely to the will of God, independent of any claim or merit on the part of the nations themselves.

Secondly, this church was destined to undergo, and indeed was undergoing at the date of St. Paul's Epistle, severe persecution. Now it is certain that both the Jewish and the Gentile convert would be inclined, from their habitual opinions, to consider this as a strong proof that they did not really enjoy the protection of God, and were not elected to his favour. The Jews had been accustomed throughout their whole history to expect the divine interference in behalf of his chosen people; and though this visible interposition had been long withheld, the idea it left still subsisted, as appears from many passages of the New Testament, and as a case in point, from the reproach cast upon our Saviour himself: " He trusted in God: "let him deliver him, if he will have him." Among the heathens, too, success was very familiarly considered indicative of the protection of superior powers: and this belief was cherished by the va rious legendary stories of supernatural aid and miraculous appearances which were incorporated with the Roman annals, and in all probability received implicit credit among the vulgar.

The Gentiles, no doubt, would very readily believe that they were admitted to privileges hitherto bestowed upon the Jew alone. But the Jews, we know, could with great difficulty be persuaded, even after conversion,

Paley, Hora Pauline,

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Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together. For I reckon that the suf

to resign their title to the hereditary favour of God: and the attempts they made in many of the churches to bring over the Gentiles to the obliga-ferings of this present time are not tions of the Mosaic law, were likely worthy to be compared with the glory to be urged more vigorously and more which shall be revealed in us.” viii. successfully at Rome, in proportion 16. Then, after a digression conto the weight their numbers gave taining farther encouragement to pathem. Then would come in the auxi- tience, he proceeds, "We know that liary inference, drawn from impend- all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are ing danger and persecution: a season which was calculated to add unusual the called according to his purpose. plausibility to the argument of the For whom he did foreknow, he also Jews, in the minds of their Gentile did predestinate to be conformed to brethren, by furnishing a sort of prac- the image of his Son, that he might brethren. tical evidence, that the divine protec- be the firstborn among many tion was not extended towards them. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, An argument which was, in fact, re- them he also called; and whom he peatedly employed, throughout the called, them he also justified; and subsequent persecutions of the Chris- whom he justified, them he also glotians; who were taunted with sense- rified. What shall we then say to less stupidity for suffering so much as these things? If God be for us, who the servants of God, who evidently, can be against us?" 28 & seqq. In it was thought, showed that he beheld conclusion. "Who shall separate us them with no favourable regard, since from the love of Christ? Shall tri he refused to exert his power in their bulation, or distress, or persecution, behalf.* or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 35, 38, 39.

With these circumstances in his view, the Apostle, after a full explanation of the main points of the Christian doctrine, provides against the effect which persecution was likely to have on the minds of the Gentile converts, by appealing to the divine determination, or predestination, in their favour. He first consoles them by the assurance, that although the gloomy prospect around them might justly appear discouraging, yet persecution had been the fate of Christ, and must be expected as the fate of those who professed to follow him; that it was looked for as a proof of their faithfulness. and must not be deemed any argument of the absence of divine regard; since it had been part of God's eternal purpose and counsel to make them partakers of his gracious dispensation, and call them to the covenant of the Gospel.

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs of God, and joint heirs with

See the account of the martyrs at Lyons. Eus. Hist. 1. v. c. 1.

Now, if the 28th, 29th, and 30th of these verses are read separately, they may, no doubt, prove that only those are called, whom God had predesti nated finally to justify and glorify: but taken with the context, as the Apostle worte them, they belong to the general argument, and declared what it was his object to convince the disciples of, as an encouragement in the endurance of persecution; viz. that God had predetermined to call the Roman converts to the faith of Christ, and unite them to that visible church, which had hitherto been com posed of the Jews alone.

This declaration was to console

The idion of the original does not jus tify the insertion of the article "the, which makes considerable difference i the import of the English sentence.

the Gentile disciple: the next object was to satisfy the Jew that he is no longer to arrogate to himself the peculiar favour of God. Here it is impossible not to remark the patriotic feelings of the man, intermixing themselves with the truth, which, as an Apostle, he was bound to deliver; and "the natural tears" which he drops over the rejection of his countrymen, are sufficient evidence, if there were no other, of the ideas which were up permost in his mind. For, if St. Paul had the case of individuals in view, to what purpose the passionate assurance of his own sympathy with the rejected Jews, with which he prefaces the fact of the calling of the Gentiles? "I say, the truth in Christ, 'I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." ix. 1, 2, to 5

Having thus tenderly soothed his countrymen, he proceeds to the purpose of his argument, in justifying their future rejection as the peculiar people of God. It is true, he says, The Gentiles are now called to the adoption which you enjoyed: but the rejection of Ishmael and of Esau,, though descended from Abraham, proves that neither your fathers originally, nor yourselves now, have any claim upon the favour of God, except his voluntary promise founded upon his good pleasure alone. "For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; it was said unto Rebecca, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth (Isaac, nor Esau,) but of God that showeth mercy." Ver. 6 to 10.

Then, with a quickness of transition peculiar to this Apostle, he brings a familiar instance to convince the Jews that there are cases with respect to nations where God, as governor of the world, only consults his supreme will. As he showed this to the Jews themselves, in bestowing his favour upon them in preference to any other people, so did he take counsel of his own sovereign pleasure alone in delaying for a time to punish the wickedness of Egypt, that his justice might appear at last more exemplary: "For, (i. e. be sides,) the Scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth." Ver. 18.

In the same way the Jews must likewise attribute to the good pleasure of God, his long endurance of them, ripe as they had been for destruction, from their obduracy and rebellion. "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault; for who hath resisted his will? Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles? As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people which were not my people; and her beloved, which

The Greek reader will not need to be

reminded, that there is nothing in the original word pa, which can convey the idea of Pharaoh's having been brought into the world for the purpose of showing God's power; nothing to controvert the idea of his being addressed as a king, in whose fate that of his people was involved.

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