according to your argument, the Jews, notwithstanding their advantages, may be as the Gentiles are, uncircumcised, and the VOL. XI. October, 1828. 37 NO. 10.] FOR OCTOBER, 1828. [VOL. 11. DIVINITY. ADVANTAGES OF DIVINE REVELATION; A SERMON, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God," Rom. iii, 1, 2. A JEW appears to propose these questions. They are founded on what the apostle had said, in the preceding chapters, of the condition of the Jews and Gentiles, viz. that they were both guilty, and exposed to punishment, for having violated the respective laws they were under; the former the written law, and the latter the law of nature, or the law written on their hearts: "For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." The Jews boasted of circumcision, and the written law, as though these entitled them to the highest regards of heaven, notwithstanding the laxity of their morals; for while they gloried in the special advantages they enjoyed, they dishonoured God by breaking his law, and causing his name to be blasphemed among the Gentiles. For this reason they were exposed to severer punishment than the Gentiles, as they sinned against greater light. The apostle therefore states to them, "Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law, but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision;" insinuating, that if it be a blessing to be under the covenant of which circumcision is the seal, yet that covenant will afford them no ultimate advantage, unless they observe its conditions, and live up to the spirit of it; since the only circumcision that can avail before God is "that of the heart in the spirit, and not of the letter; whose praise is not of men but of God." He assures the Jews, moreover, that although the Gentiles have not the written law, yet, if they keep the righteousness of the law, it shall be counted unto them for circumcision: so that they should be as fully acceptable to God if they acted in accordance with their inferior degree of light, as the Jews would be who complied with the conditions of the Abrahamic covenant. A Jew would naturally feel offended at these statements, and wish to do away their force, or call in question their correctness. He therefore asks, "What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?" As though he had said, Since according to your argument, the Jews, notwithstanding their advantages, may be as the Gentiles are, uncircumcised, and the VOL. XI. October, 1828. 37 |