Two discourses concerning the Holy Spirit, and His work the one, Of the Spirit…

(§ 6.) And this, it may be, occasioned that Difference which was afterwards among them, whether their Ministry extended unto the Gentiles or no; as we may see Acts, Chap. 10 and 11. But whereas our Saviour in that Commission, by virtue whereof they were to act after his Resurrection, had extended their Office and Power expressly to all Nations, Mat. 28. 19. or to every Creature in all the World, Mat. 16. 15. A Man would wonder whence that uncertainty should arise. I am persuaded that God suffered it so to be, that the Calling of the Gentiles might be more signalized, or made more eminent thereby. For whereas this was the great Mystery which in other Ages was not made known but hid in God, namely that the Gentiles should be Fellow Heirs, and of the same Body, and partakers of his Promise in Christ, that is, of the Promise made unto Abraham by the Gospel, Ephes. 3. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. it being now to be laid open and displayed, he would by their Hesitation about it have it searched into, examined, tried and proved, that the Faith of the Church might never be shaken about it in after Ages. And in like manner when God at any time suffereth Differences and Doubts about the Truth or his Worship, to arise in the Church, he doth it for Holy Ends, although for the present we may not be able to discover them. But this Ministry of the Apostles with its Powers and Duties, this Apostleship which extended only unto the Church of the Jews, ceased at the Death of Christ, or at the end of his own Personal Ministry in this World. Nor can any, I suppose, pretend unto a Succession to them therein. Who or what peculiar Instruments he will use and employ for the final Recovery ⟨p. 141⟩of that miserable lost People, whether he will do it by an Ordinary or an Extraordinary Ministry, by Gifts Miraculous, or by the naked Efficacy of the Gospel, is known only in his own Holy Wisdom and Counsel; The Conjectures of Men about these things are vain and fruitless. For although the Promises under the Old Testament for the calling of the Gentiles were far more clear and numerous, than those which remain concerning the recalling of the Jews, yet because the Manner, Way, and all other Circumstances were obscured, the whole is called a Mystery hid in God from all the former Ages of the Church; much more therefore may the way and manner of the recalling of the Jews be esteemed an hidden Mystery;