By the tower of Election every where exalted and beautiful, the Lord God delivered, to other husbandmen paying fruits in their season, the figurative vineyard, now no longer hedged round, but expanded to the whole world. For, every where, the Church is illustrious; and, every where, is the wine-press dug round: because those, who receive the Spirit, are every where. The former husbandmen reprobated the Son of God and, when they had killed him, they cast him out of the vineyard. Therefore God also has justly reprobated them and has given the fructification of the culture to nations, which were without the vineyard *. : 3. Ambrose follows these two primitive writers at a very considerable interval; for he flourished during the latter part of the fourth century: yet it may perhaps be thought, that he also bears witness to the same System, and consequently that the same System had continued to be received down even to his time. * Quapropter et tradidit eam Dominus Deus, non jam circumvallatam, sed expansam in universum mundum, aliis colonis reddentibus fructus temporibus suis, turre electionis exaltata ubique et speciosa. Ubique enim præclara est Ecclesia; et ubique circumfossum torcular: ubique enim sunt, qui suscipiunt Spiritum. Quoniam enim Filium Dei reprobaverunt, et ejecerunt eum, cum eum occidissent, extra vineam: justè reprobavit eos Deus; et, extra vineam existentibus gentibus, dedit fructificationem culturæ. Iren. adv. hær. lib. iv. c. 70. p. 302. There are none, who are rejected by Christ. But there are some, who are elected by the Lord: since the Lord calleth the things which are not, as though they were. And the nations of the Gentiles are elected, that the perfidy of the Jews might be destroyed*. III. In the places, which have been recited, there is a semblance of evidence in favour of the Scheme of Nationalism: but, when they are explained by other passages of equal antiquity, the evidence, which they afford, cannot be deemed more than a mere semblance. The IDEA, which they really convey, is not that of The Election of certain whole nations into the Church, while, by the exercise of God's sovereignty, certain other whole nations are pretermitted or reprobated; an Election, relating purely to the privileged condition of the chosen nations in this world, and not extending to their collective eternal state in another world. But the IDEA, which they convey, is that of The Jews collectively being esteemed one people or nation; while the Gentiles, who have been individually brought into the Church, are collectively, * Non sunt, qui repudiantur a Christo. Sunt autem, qui eliguntur a Domino: quoniam Dominus vocat quæ non sunt, tanquam quæ sunt. Et electæ sunt gentium nationes, ut destrueretur perfidia Judæorum. Ambros. Enarr. in Psalm. xliii. Oper. p. 1380. : within the pale of the Church, another people or nation the benefit of this Election not being confined to certain privileges in this world only; but, so far as God's purpose and intention and generic conditional promises are concerned, extending to eternal life in another world. Accordingly, in those other passages to which I have referred, it is distinctly intimated that, when the nations are said to be elected, not Some whole nations, as contradistinguished from other whole nations, are meant, but Various individuals out of the great body of the Nations or Gentiles, as contradistinguished from the single Nation of the Jews. 1. To this purpose speaks Clement of Rome. May the all-seeing God, who elected the Lord Jesus Christ and us through him to be a peculiar people, grant, to every soul that calleth upon his great and holy name, faith, fear, peace, patience, long-suffering, temperance, holiness, and wisdom*. 2. To the same purpose speaks Justin Martyr. Inasmuch as he took out of all nations the nation of the Jews, a nation useless and disobedient and faithless he hath shewn, that those, * Ο πανόπτης Θεὸς, ὁ ἐκλεξάμενος τὸν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν καὶ ἡμᾶς δι ̓ αὐτοῦ εἰς λαὸν περιούσιον, δῴη, πάσῃ ψυχῇ ἐπικεκλημένῃ τὸ μεγαλοπρεπὲς καὶ ἅγιον ὄνομα αὐτοῦ, πίστιν, φόβον, εἰρήνην, ὑπομονὴν, μακροθυμίαν, ἐγκράτειαν, ἁγνείαν, καὶ σωφροσύνην. Clem. Rom. Epist. ad Corinth. i. § 58. who have been elected out of every nation, are, through Christ, obedient to his counsel *. 3. To the same purpose, again, speaks Irenèus. The wages of Jacob were variegated sheep: and the wages of Christ are men collected out of various and different nations into one cohort of the faith t. The universal going forth of the People from Egypt was, from God, a type and image of the future going forth of the Church from the nations +. 4. To the same purpose, finally, speaks Ambrose. When the Lord says to his disciples, that is, to the apostles; If any one will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me he speaks to Levites. Nevertheless, the passage; Ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, an adopted people: is addressed to all §. Ἐκ πάντων δὲ τῶν γενῶν, γένος ἑαυτῷ λαβὼν τὸ ὑμέτερον (scil. τῶν Ἰουδαιῶν), γένος ἄχρηστον καὶ ἀπειθὲς καὶ ἄπιστον, δείξας τοὺς ἀπὸ παντὸς γένους αἱρουμένους πεπεῖσθαι αὐτοῦ τῇ βουλῇ διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Justin. Dial. cum Tryph. Oper. p. 282. Variæ oves, quæ fiebant hinc Jacob merces et Christi merces, ex variis et differentibus gentibus, in unam cohortem fidei convenientes fiunt homines. Iren. adv. hær. lib. iv. c. 38. p. 272. Universa enim quæ ex Ægypto profectio fiebat populi, a Deo typus et imago fiebat profectionis Ecclesiæ quæ erat futura ex gentibus. Iren. adv. hær. lib. iv. c. 50. P. 286. § Dominus Levitis dicit, cum, discipulis suis, hoc est, Apostolis dicit: Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum, et IV. On the whole, for the general reception, or even for the bare existence of the Scheme of Nationalism in the Primitive Church, as I understand that Scheme to be developed by Mr. Locke, I am unable to discover any evidence. What evidence we have, is, in truth, hostile to it. Therefore, like the Scheme of Arminianism, I conceive, that it must be dismissed, as a novelty, and thence (in the language of Tertullian) as an adulteration. tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me. Quanquam ad omnes jam dictum sit Vos autem genus electum, regale sacerdotium, gens sancta, populus in adoptionem. Ambros. de fug. sæcul. c. ii. Oper. p. 198. |