If, defirous to establish this point, we have bestowed upon it more words than the clear language of St. Paul feemed to require; it is hoped the importance of the subject, and the doubts of fome learned men respecting it, will be a fufficient apology. It being therefore evident, that, when St. Paul wrote, a general converfion of the Jews was, at fome future period, to take place; and it being certain from hiftory, that, between his days and the prefent, no event of this nature has ever happened; it remains, that we look for it, with full affurance of hope, in the generations to come. first, not to the fecond claufe. The apoftle reprefents the return of the house of Judah, which should one day be brought to pafs, and the converfion of the Gentiles, which was already begun, as proceeding both of them from the free grace of GOD in Christ. But the gospel, as to the order of preaching, was first to be tendered to the Jews; and when they were fufficiently instructed, or when, as it more frequently happened, they obftinately caft from them the word of life, it was to be offered to the heathen. See Acts xiii. 46. In a certain fenfe too the belief of the Gentiles was the occafion of the Jews' unbelief; for they were offended because the apostles went to men uncircumcifed, and the multitude of Gentile converts instead of kindling their emulation or foftening their hatred, inflamed their rancour and increased their stubbornnefs. But here, certified of the fact and anxious for its accomplishment, curiofity perhaps will afk, When shall it be? and how fhall it be brought about? Of the minute circumftances of future events, the existence of which may from the word of prophecy be paft a doubt, it becomes us to speak with cautious diffidence. Led on by the hand of the Almighty, they may advance upon our wondering fight, as in the ancient ages they often have, in fuch order and fo attended, as from the intimations beforehand was by no means expected; yet conformably in every point to those intimations, when the facts themselves cleared up what before was dubious, and reconciled what had feemed inconfiftent. In the prefent case, though it were sufficient to say, that He who revealed the gracious defign, will haften it in his own appointed time; yet there are, in the predictions concerning it, fome circumstances which admit a probable and fafe interpretation, if we confider them as only probable, and regard for certain, what alone is certain, the event itself. In the first place then, fince the return of the Jews and the coming in of the Gentiles are are mentioned together by St. Paul, as they had been before, though lefs explicitly, by our bleffed Lord m ; we may hence infer, that these two mighty revolutions fhall happen in one and the fame age. When many of the Jews, the natural branches, were broken off from the holy olive, the Gentiles were graffed in; and they shall never more, we humbly truft, be diffevered from the living root, but receive perpetual vigour from it. The church that nurtured with fondest care her first born fon, but caft him out for his wayward stubbornness, fhall embrace with a mother's love the returning penitent, without ejecting the younger brother. The dew of heaven, which has hitherto been on the fleece alone, on the little flock of Ifrael and of Christ, fhall refresh hereafter all the earth, and there fhall be one fold under one fhepherd. If we examine further the connection of these two events, and inquire which, if either, fhall pave the way for the other; perhaps it may appear, that the Jews shall be the means of bringing in the refidue of the Gentiles, rather than that the univerfal belief of the Gentiles fhall precede and set forward the converfion of the Jews. The words of the text will, in the original, easily admit this fenfe"; and another paffage in the fame chapter feems to require it: "If the fall of them," fays the apostle, "be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?" This queftion, which is equivalent to a direct affertion and the meaning of which the former words fuggeft, evidently implies, that the fulness of the Jews, their general obedience to the gospel, shall, in a degree far above their fall and diminution, be the enriching of the world and the Gentiles: "If when the collective body was caft off, the few, comparatively, who believed, were the means of converting fo many thousand Gentiles; how many more fhall the univerfal hoft of the difperfion, who perhaps for this very reason among others are by a gracious providence scattered abroad; how many more shall they, when their fins are forgiven and n άχρις g το πλήρωμα των εθνών εισελθῃ. See how this word or other words in the fame or corresponding tenfes are used in the following paffages: Matt. x. 11. with Mar. vi. 10. Matt. xxiv. 34, 35. with Mar. xiii. 31. and Luke xxi. 33. Matt. xxvi. 41. Luke ix. 4. with x. 5. 8. John v. 15. vii. 27. with 31. and viii. 14. A&ts iii. 19. And fee Mr. Mede, p. 483. 596. 760. on Rev. xi. 7. • Rom. xi. 12. their 1 their backfliding healed, gather together to Him who has had mercy on them, even Jefus Chrift?" Be it fo, that these things are marvelous in our eyes, and that we discover no traces of their approach. Is any thing too hard for GOD? or fhall aught appear marvelous in His fight? Shall not his counsel stand? and fhall he not perform his good pleasure? What if their iniquity shall be removed in a day?? and a nation born at once? What if the Holy Spirit fhall breathe upon the flain, and they fhall live; and each shall stand up in his place, a great and innumerable army' ? When the Son of GOD, in the days of his flesh, came unto his own, his own received him not; and their obdurate heart ages of fuffering have not mollified. He will therefore forgive them and love them freely; and, at this fecond time, he will make himself known to his brethren. Then peradventure shall be accomplished what cannot without violence be understood either of the deftruction of Jerufalem, or of the day of univerfal judgement; then fhall they look on him. P Zech. iii. 9. 9 If. lxvi. 8. Acts vii. 13. Ez. xxxvii. 9, 10. " John xix. 37. whom |