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sp ired prophet was sent to the Genr tile world to warn them of the evil of their ways , to call them to repeatatice , or to offer any terms of mercy and forgiveness . * ' The times of this ignorance , ( as Paul tells the idolatrous Athenians , ) God winked at , but now / 5 when a universal dispensation of grace and mercy was opened , in which a day of future retribution was clearly revealed , in which God would judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he had ordained , of which he had given assurance to all
men by raising him from the dead , and having commanded repentance and remission of sins in his name , to lie proclaimed among' all nations , God who winked at the former times of ignorance , now commandeth all men every where to repent . No such universal command had ever before been
issued , because the reason of it did not exist . The same sentiment respecting the forbearance of God to the Gentiles , is expressed by Paul and Barnabas in
their address to the people at Lystra , when they , supposing them to be gods in the likeneys of men , with the priest of Jupiter , were about to offer sacrifices to them , " which when the
apostles heard , they ran in among the people crying out , und saying , Sirs , Why $ o ye these things ? We also are men of like passions with you , and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God , which made heaven and earth ,
and the sea , and all things that are therein / ' They then inform them that this living God , the Creator of all things , " In times past stiffered all nations to walk in their own ways , " i . e . to pursue their evil and idolatrous courses , without interfering to
reprove or to punish them . The apostles add , " Nevertheless he left not himself without witness , " ( that is of his existence , power and Godhead , )
hut this evidence of his being- and perfection * was not afforded them by any d wlne ' interposition or supernatural revelation , but only by the common bounties of hie Providence . " In that / ' « ay thef ; 4 f he did good , and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful
seasons , filling ' * our hearts with food and gladn < 8 fi »>* Thfca we see that it ¦ ¦ " ¦ - - —• «*• •—''»*"•— - <—•— - — " ¦' ' t * i * Acts adv . 13—rl 7 , ,
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was for the remission or passing over of the past sins of the Gentile vrorW * that Jesus Christ was , at that time , set forth as a mercy-seat to declare the righteousness of God .
With respect to the Jews , the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews more directly and expressly affirms that the death of Jesus Christ was necessartf in order to redeem their past transgressions . Speaking of the sacrifice of Christ , he says , * " For this cause
he is the Mediator of the New Testament , ( covenant , ) that by means of death , for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament , ( covenant , ) they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance ; for where a covenant is , there is a necessity for the death of that which establishe d * the covenant . + For a covenant is . , firm over the dead : whereas it is of no force while that which establisheth the covenant liveth . " Upon this passage we may observe ,
In the first place , that the dispensation of the gospel is here denominated , " the new covenant ; as the law , the dispensation of Moses is denominated the first , or old covenant . This covenant was the
decalogue , the law of the ten commandments written by the finger of God upon two tables of stone , which are called the tables of the covenant : these were deposited in the ark > which on that account is styled the arh of the
covenant . \ Our translators in these verses , and in some other passages , have , very improperly , rendered the Greek here used , with respect to both the Jewish and the Christian covenants , by the word " Testament , " thereby conveying the idea that the latter was the will of Jesus Christ , to the validity and effect of which the death of him the testator was necessary . If this be the t fue interpretation , will it not nece ^ fsarily follow , that the victim , who : ^ e blood was shed , and whose death confirmed the Old Testament , was t $ ie testator of that Testament ? On the other hand ,
• Heb . ix . 15 . f Imp . Ven That is , of the victim byt which the covenant is ratified . S » Wakefield and Doddrid # e . ^ J See Deut . Ix . 9—1 JL ; Heb . . ix . 4 . ,
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Mr . Marsom oh the Efficacy of the Death of Christ . 639
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1823, page 639, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1790/page/23/
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