Page:A brief discussion of some of the claims of the Hon. E. Swedenborg.pdf/3



and Isaiah are the prophets referred to; but it is the language of the former which the apostle Paul has most distinctly quoted. It is a sort of climax to a general statement, intended to enforce upon the consideration of unbelievers the extraordinary truths of the Gospel dispensation. The chief designs of the citation are to warn them against the melancholy consequences of obstinate prejudice, and to induce them to remove a perverse faithlessness in the means which Divine Wisdom has employed to communicate spiritual intelligence and eternal virtues to the world. As a prophecy written under the direction of the Divine auspices, it must, of course, have its fulfilment in some specific circumstance. The apostle appears to have regarded that circumstance to be the preaching of the forgiveness of sins through the Lord Jesus Christ, and the obtaining thereby justification, which could not be secured by the law—the ceremonial law—of Moses But still, as a Divine prediction, its signification was not intended to be confined to that circumstance, or its application to be limited to those times: if such were the case, it has now become inutile and forceless. The Lord did not at that time, nor has he at any subsequent period, so