370 nAPMONt OF' ALL ttELÍGION$. political laws, whether they received christianity or no And therefore Jewish christians in Judea complied with them, till their polity was finished by the destruction of Jerusalem. - 3. As forthe ceremonial laws, they were particularly designed, not only to distinguish the Jews from other nations, butalso to be types and figures of the blessings of the gospel and there- fore as they are wisely appointed to foreshew these blessings of christianity, and to be a distinguishing mark of the Jews; so they were as wisely worn out and abolished when christianity was in- troduced, and the wall of distinction between Jews and gentiles was broken down. They were but shadowsor figuresfor the time being, andmust vanish when the substance appeared. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews, chapter ix. and x. and to the Colossi- ans, chapter ii. evidently uses this argument for their abolition, the great design of them being fulfilled. XV. It is plain therefore, that these ceremonial or religi- ous laws were not lawful for the gentile converts out of Judea, to observe at all, as St. Paul writes in his epistle to the Galati- ans, If ye are circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing; Gal. v. 2. since they were never appointed for the gentilesby the great God, nor imposed upon them by Christ ; and he is zealous to maintain this their Iiberty against all Jewish impositions and impostors, who would persuade the gentiles to be circumcised, and to observe their ceremonies. XVI. As for the Jewish christians, though they were not obliged to observe them as matters of religion, after the setting up of christianity, yet since all the Jewish nation were so much prejudiced in favour of these ceremonies, and since the Jewish christians, and even some of the apostles, could so hardly be brought off from them, they seemed to be indulged for a season in this practice. And even St. Paul himself, who was a Jewish christian, at particular times engages in the practice of them; not as things which he believed necessary in order to serve God, but as mere lawful and indifferent things, and as matters of present expedi- ency, which were wearing off, waxing old and vanishing away, as Heb. viii. 13. that is, they were vanishing as fast as Judaism ]tasted to its period, and as fast as human nature could bear the wearing out of its old prejudices ; And therefore he became all to all at that time that he might gain some proselytes ; 1 Cor. ix. 20-22. " To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. I am made all things to men, that I might by all means save some." Therefore he took Timothy, whose mother was a Jes'ess, and circumcisedhint, when he sent him out as a preacher; Acts Zvi. 1 -3. in order to ingratiate himwith the Jews, or lest he should give offence to the Jewish christians : Therefore
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