V.

SERM. Incenfe fhall be offered unto my Name, and a pure Offering; For my Name shall be great among the Heathen, faith the Lord of Hofts. Now in this prediction there is evidently contained, 1ft, Something comminatory, or by way of Threatning, with regard to the Jews; And, 2dly, a particular Promife in relation to the Gentiles; joined with a general Declaration concerning the State and Condition of the Universal Church in the future and latter Ages of the World.

ift, WITH regard to the Jews, there is contained in the Text, Something Comminatory, or in the way of Threatning; as is evident from the Connexion of the words. For the former part of the chapter, is a severe expoftulation with That people, upon account of their unworthy behaviour in the Service of God: And this Complaint against the Jews, is immediately followed with God's declaring in the Text, that his Name should be Great among the Gentiles. The Advantages which the Jewish Nation enjoyed, were very extraordinary; in that to Them were committed the Oracles of God. He

Showed

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fhowed his Word unto Jacob, his Statutes S ER M. and Ordinances unto Ifrael; He had not dealt fo with any Other Nation, neither had the Heathen Knowledge of his Laws. Answerable to thefe high privileges, it was reasonable to expect, that their improvements in Virtue and all Holiness, should have been proportionably Great: For to whom much is given, of Him, according to the Rule of Equity, will be much required. But fo contrary to this expectation was the Behaviour of That people, that with a juft Severity God complains of them by the Prophets, ver. 6. of this chapter; If I be a Father, where is mine Honour? if I be a Mafter, where

is

my Fear?------If ye offer the blind for Sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and fick, is is not evil?------I have no pleasure in you, faith the Lord of Hofts, neither will I accept an Offering at your hands. And then it follows in the words of the Text, For from the rifing of the Sun, even unto the going down of the fame, my Name fhall be great among the Gentiles. The Threatning contained in This

V.

$ ER M. expoftulation, is exactly the fame with that of our Saviour in the Gospel; The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the Fruits thereof. The Accomplishment of which Threatning upon the people of the Jews, both for the unparallelled manner of its execution, and for the unexampled length of the time of its continuance, has been fo confpicuous; that now, near seventeen hundred years after the destruction of Jerufalem, they remain at this very day a living and ocular demonftration of the Truth of all the antient Prophecies which concern their State. But

2dly, THE Text contains a particular Promise in relation to the Gentiles; joined with a general Declaration concerning the State and Condition of the Univerfal Church in the future and latter Ages of the World: In every place, Incenfe fhall be offered unto my Name, and a pure Offering; For my Name fhall be Great among the Heathen, faith the Lord of Hofts. Notwithstanding That ftrong and fettled Prejudice among the Jews, of which we find great Re

mains even among our Saviour's own Dif- SER M. ciples, that That Nation was always to be the Alone peculiar people of God; ye we find in the Prophecies of the Old Teftament many very clear intimations, like This in the Text, that, in the days of the Meffiah, the Favour of God fhould be extended to the Gentiles, and his Knowledge fpread among the Nations of the Earth. I. lx. 3. The Gentiles shall come to thy Light, and Kings to the brightness of thy Rifing: And ch. xlix. 6. It is a light thing that thou shouldeft be my Servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preferved of Ifrael; „I will alfo give thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that thou mayeft be my Salvation unto the Ends of the Earth. These Prophecies plainly began to be fulfilled, at the time when the Apostles were commanded to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews; and the full accomplishment of them will then take place, when the same everlafting Gospel fhall either effectually prevail, or at least shall have been preached and tendred in its purity, H 2

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among

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SER M. among all Nations. In every place, Incenfe fhall be offered unto my Name, and a pure Offering. Incenfe, (which is the Prayers of the Saints, Rev. v. 8.) and this phrafe, a pure Offering, are plainly intended to express That Spiritual Religion, That Worship of the Father in Spirit and Truth according to the Gospel of Christ, which is opposed to the carnal Ordinances and literal Sacrifices of the Jews, and of which thofe Sacrifices and external Purifications were but Types and Figures. Hence the Christian Worship, the Worfhip of God out of a pure heart, and of a good confcience, and of faith unfeigned; is elegantly filed a Spiritual Sacrifice, 1 Pet. ii. 5; the Sacrifice of Praise to God continually, Heb. xiii. 15; the presenting ourfelves a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is our reasonable Service, Rom. xii. 1. The Metaphor is exactly of the fame fort, as That whereby Christians are called The true circumcifion, the circumcifion made without hands; as being That in reality, in the true and spiritual Effect, of which the circumcifion in the

flesh