effects of his own free bounty and goodness; and as none of his creatures could be fuppofed to have any claim upon him, fo it was wholly in his option, whether to bestow thefe bleffings at all on mankind or not, and to confer them upon whom, and in whatsoever measure, he pleased. He might have mercy on whom he would have mercy; and there could be no injustice in denying that to fome, which he was not obliged to bestow upon any: That as the potter hath power over the clay, of the fame lump, to make one veffel to honour, and another to difhonour; fo was the great Creator of the world at liberty, not only to make his creatures of different ranks and orders, and to endue them with different talents and capacities, but even, of the fame race and order of beings, to raise fome to higher degrees of perfection and happiness than others, and to place them in circumftances more or lefs advantageous, as to his infinite wifdom fhould feem moft proper, for anfwering the wife ends of his providence. He reafons also from analogy, which is the fureft guide to man in all his inquiries into the nature of God's moral government; and fhows us, that the conduct of Providence, in choofing the Gentiles to be his church and people in the room of the Jews, is exactly conformable to the difpenfations of his grace in former ages. He inftances in the cafe of Ifaac, who was the only perfon, of all the numerous pofterity of Abraham, that God chofe to be the father of his church, and heir of the promises: As likewife in that of Jacob, who was preferred to the fame honour, in the room of his elder brother Efau, who was the natural heir and betwixt whofe rejection, and that

of

of the Jews, there was, on this account, the greater resemblance; "For unto them," as the Apostle obferves, "pertained the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law," &c. But the fame fenfual and worldly difpofition which coft Efau his birth-right, proved alfo the cause of their rejection; for being more concerned for their temporal welfare than for their eternal happiness, and more ambitious of the riches and honours of this prefent life than of the joys of a better, they defpifed their Meffiah, because his coming did not answer their carnal and groundless expectations. He likewise vindicates the juftice of Providence in rejecting the Jews, from the nature of thofe fins which brought this judgment upon them; viz. their unbelief and disobedience to the call of the gofpel: and certainly it was but reasonable, that they who would not embrace the gospel, when in their offer, fhould be deprived of its benefits and privileges; that they fhould be rejected from being the people of God, who had rejected the meffage of his only Son, refifted the testimony of the holy Spirit, and hardened themfelves against the most powerful means of conviction. And having vindicated the juftice of this dispensation, the Apostle proceeds, in the verfe we have now read, and those which follow, to illustrate the wisdom and goodness thereof. He fhows us, that the Almighty, in rejecting the Jews, had not acted arbitrarily or without reafon, much less from any pleasure he had in their fufferings, nor yet merely from a regard to his authority, or as a punishment upon them for their unbelief and disobedience to the call of the gofpel, though it was fuch as mighty fufficiently juftify the

divine

divine conduct towards them; but chiefly from a view to the good of the rest of mankind, as this gave occafion to the preaching of the gofpel among the Gentiles, and contributed both to the propagation of the Christian religion at firft in the world, and was alfo a means of preferving and maintaining it in after ages. "I say then, Have they ftumbled that they "fhould fall? God forbid: but through their fall "falvation is come to the Gentiles."

In difcourfing farther from these words, I propose, through divine affistance, first, To explain the words; and, then, To deduce from them a few observations, one or more of which I fhall profecute as your time will allow.

Firft, I am to explain the words. The defign of this verfe, as it ftands connected with the preceding context, is to prevent a mistake concerning the doctrine there inculcated. The Apoftle had afferted, that God intended to caft off the Jews from being his people, and to exclude them from the church of Chrift; and, in proof of this, had cited two paffages from the Old Teftament, where the blindness and infidelity of that people are foretold. But that none might mistake his meaning, as if that blindness was to be perpetual, or to last for ever, he adds, "I fay "then, Have they stumbled that they fhould fall:" as if he had faid, I have shown it is the will of God, that the Jews, for their abufe of his mercies, their unbelief and disobedience to the call of the gofpel, fhould be rejected from being his people, and deprived of all the advantages they enjoyed from fo honourable a relation; that they fhould be excluded from the church of Christ, and given up to a spirit of blindness

and

and infidelity; and have endeavoured to vindicate the divine justice, in inflicting this dreadful judgment upon them but would not be fo understood, as if God intended to leave them in this deplorable state, nor ever more to receive them into his favour. I am perfuaded of the contrary, not only from the predictions of the former prophets, who have foretold a glorious restoration to the people of God in the latter days, but also from the testimony of the holy Spirit, who has been graciously pleased to grant me a particular revelation of this, for my own and the church's comfort: viz. That there is a time coming, when the Lord fhall bring back the captivity of Ifrael, and again acknowledge them for his people; when the vail fhall be removed from their hearts, in the reading of the fcriptures, and their eyes opened, to fee the accomplishment of them in the person of our Saviour. It is not therefore the defign of Providence to caft off the Jews for ever, but only to exclude them from the church for a time, in order to make way for the converfion of the Gentiles; neither is it to be confidered fo much as a token of his averfion to the former, as of his love and mercy to the latter. As the wife Governor of the world never acts arbitrarily, or without reafon, in any of his dealings with his creatures, but least of all in the distribution of punishment; fo his severity to the Jews is intended for good to the rest of mankind, and hath, in fact, been productive of the greatest bleffings to the world in general, as it has been a means of spreading the gospel among the Gentiles, of enlightening the understanding, and reforming the lives of many thousands of mankind formerly funk in fuperftition and vice, of purifying

their

their hearts by faith, and bringing them, through the knowledge of the truth, to a state of eternal happiness in a better world; which happy effects of the gospel are intended, in the wifdom of God, to be a means of bringing the Jews to repentance, and the acknowledgment of the uth as it is in Chrift, by exciting in them a holy e.nulation to see the Gentiles fubstituted in their ftead, and poffeffed of all thofe diftinguishing bleffings and privileges which they, as the people of God, formerly enjoyed.

From the words thus explained, these obfervations do naturally occur: First, That the fall of the Jews

was the rife of the Gentiles; or, That the rejecting of the gospel by the former, was a means of propagating the Christian religion at first in the world, and also of preferving and maintaining it in after ages. Secondly, That this apoftafy of the Jews is not final, or to continue for ever; but, at a time appointed by infinite wifdom, to end in their converfion to the Chriftian faith, and restoration to their former privileges.

First, I fay, The fall of the Jews was the rise of the Gentiles: To this end it contributed feveral ways; ift, As it was that chiefly which gave occafion to the preaching of the gospel among the Gentiles.

The Apostles, having been educated in all the falfe principles and tenets of the corrupt Jewish church, had, at first, this notion in common with the rest of their countrymen, that the bleffings of the Meffiah's kingdom belonged only to them, and that the Gentiles were still to be excluded from the church of God. They thought, that the promises made to the Patriarchs extended only to their posterity, or natural offspring; and as falvation was of the Jews, fo they

alone