lous fulfilment, there will at least be such | the reason why such a process shoul a manifestation of the divine knowledge, have been instituted, rather than any as will incontestably prove that God has other, for the purpose of making it good had to do with it; and so as that history especially if it be a process which inshall of itself perform the office of reve- volves in it the perdition, endless and irrelation, or men will trace the finger of the mediable, of the millions and millions Almighty in the events which are sensi- more of many generations. The difficulty bly passing before their eyes. And be- is aggravated a thousand-fold, when the sides, we have reason to believe of these Author and Originator of the whole is a converted Jews, that they will become Being of infinite power, but a power unthe most zealous and successful of all der the direction of infinite goodness and missionaries; or, like Paul before them, wisdom-prone as we are to wish, and the preachers of that faith which they therefore to imagine, that He may have persecuted in times past, and once la- will,-and by the energies which belong boured to destroy.* It is said of a single to Him, have also brought forth an instant Christian that he may be the light of the creation of perfect light and perfect virworld. How much more will be a whole tue; and secured it against all the inroads, nation of Christians-glowing in the full by which either wickedness or woe could ardour of their new-born convictions have ever entered. This is the mystery with apostolic fervour; and the very of God-not the glorious consummation fruit of whose conversion will tell with of a regenerated world, but the deep-laid a hundred-fold greater effect than even necessity for the evil which preceded it ; that of St. Paul, as a testimony or evi- and why it had to be reached by so long dence for the faith. Verily like him, and dark and laborious a pathway, strewn their great prototype, they will pre-emi- as it were with the ruins of many succes nently and emphatically be the apostles sive ages. The origin of evil comes into of the Gentiles; and there will be a light view while we meditate on these things; to lighten these Gentiles, in the very glory and the difficulties of this transcendental of the people of Israel. We must look question serve still more to beset and to futurity for this great accomplishment- baffle our ambitious speculations. for, most obviously, it has not yet been realised. It will be "in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for qut of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." This is all yet to come-else how could it be spoken, as an immediate sequence of its fulfilment that "He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

It might be felt by some to alleviate, though most certainly it does not resolve the mystery, if we can state some analogy between the process laid down in this chapter and other parts or passages in the history of the Divine administration. For example, the apostle elsewhere tells us of the law having entered, that the offence might abound.* It looks inexplicably hard, that the law, or aught whatever, should have come directly from God for such a purpose-or that sin might be multiplied But the difficulty seems to be at least mitigated, if not wholly done away, when the apostle further tells us, that "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound"-a grace all the more illustrious, it is certain, from the magnitude and enormity of that guilt over which it triumphed. Nay we are told of another great moral design which was accomplished by sin being thus placed in connection with the law-"that sin by the commandment might become exceeding

But, after all, we are but attempting an explanation of the efficient causes in this process-which, though fully and satis-sinful"-as if the worth and excellence factorily made out, would still leave the final cause of the whole an unresolved mystery. We may be able to follow and understand every step of a mechanism which has been set up for the production of a given result-yet not understand the meaning of the result itself, and still less

of that which is good, and the exceeding deformity of that which is evil, were, by juxtaposition, brought into more bright and vivid manifestation. And the case before us looks like another specimen of the same thing-characteristic of the Divine administration; and in keeping with, or in the style, of its general policy. He had first illustrated the mercy of the gos

pel, and all the more palpably, by its tak- | manner would we infer, that it is to exhi ing effect, at least chiefly and primarily, bit the Divine character in another of its on the Gentiles, wholly given over to idol- phases-even the riches of His glory, speatry, and disfigured by all the atrocities cified in Ephesians, i, 6, as the glory of of human wickedness-rather than on the His grace-when we read, that, also after decent, formal, well-seeming Jews, the much long-suffering it may be, the longprofessing worshippers of one God; whose suffering which is termed salvation by the vices, of more deep and subtle and spiri- apostle Peter,* He heaps His choicest tual a character, did not glare so on the preferments and blessings on the vessels eye of general observation. But these, in of mercy, and thus makes known the riches their turn, and after ages of seemingly of His glory. One main end of the Dihopeless alienation, during which they vine policy in the government and final acquit themselves with all the despite and destiny of men seems to be manifestation defiance and resolved hardihood of out--that both heaven and earth might learn laws-on these, obviously reared by Pro- thereby the more to hate all evil, to love vidence for some of its high designs, shall and admire all worth and goodness and we yet behold the second great illustra-true greatness, whether in themselves or tion of gospel mercy; all the more en- as exemplified by Him in whom all greathanced, it is certain, by its breaking forth ness and goodness are personified. In in the train of Jewish perversity and Jew-harmony with this view, we read of the ish unbelief, at length giving way, after they had stood their ground and been distinctly persisted in for many generations. This is one undoubted effect of His having concluded all in unbelief; that He might have mercy upon all (ver. 32). The one, so to speak, is set off by the other like the effect of light and shade in painting; or when any object in nature is seen all the more strikingly and conspicuously because of the dark ground on which it is projected. In a school of virtue, one chief end were the enforcement of great moral lessons; and this perhaps were best effected by bringing out in boldest possible relief the evil of sin; and in all their beauty and brightness the characteristics of highest moral perfection, or, which is tantamount to this, the high and holy attributes of Him, in whom all perfection as well as all power have had their everlasting dwelling-place. Now providence is pre-eminently a school of virtue; and we may therefore expect that history, and in a more especial manner sacred history, where the manifestations of providence are seen in nearest connection with the designs of grace, will abound in such lesAnd accordingly, such is the manifest purpose of many revealed evolutions or passages in the history of the Divine administration-of God's dealings with the world. We have already noticed that a law was brought in, and for the purpose that sin might become (or might appear) exceeding sinful-like a foul blot on a tablet of resplendent purity. And though in the form of a question, yet it is no obscure hint which is conveyed, when Paul asks, Whether it might not be God's will to show His wrath, His righteous indignation at moral evil, and to make His power known-when He destroys those vessels of wrath which He had before endured with much long-suffering.* And in like * Romans, ix, 22.

sons.

Lord Jesus being revealed with His mighty angels, on that dread occasion when the glory of His power and sacredness shall be displayed in the destruction of sinners; and the glory of His infinite love for the holy in the triumph and happiness of the saints. And so His disposal of the church does not terminate in, but has an ulterior object to itself-even "to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known, by the church, the manifold wisdom of God." There is evidently here a something pointed at beyond the immediate concern which men have in the Divine procedure—a reference to the distant as well as to the future; and our felt ignorance of this larger and more comprehensive policy should serve to humble and chasten and repress our ambitious speculations. Yet though we see but in glimpses, we cannot fail to discern in Scripture the traces of a constant respect to manifestation as one great drift or design of God's universal government-and that too the manifestation of contrasts, or of things made more striking and conspicuous in themselves, by being presented along with their opposites. So essentially and characteristically indeed is holiness a repugnance to moral evil, that some have been satisfied with this as a sufficient explanation for the enigma of its existence-that but for the reality, or at least the conception of evil, there could have been no exhibition of that jealous and invincible recoil from sin, wherewith perfect virtue must ever regard the opposite of itself. For our own parts, we can profess no absolute satisfaction with any of the solutions which have been proposed of these high mysteries. We look upon them all as hypothetical, and yet of use, because fully adequate to the work of si lencing, and so placing in abeyance the infidelity alike hypothetical which has * 2 Peter, iii, 15. † Rom. ix, 23. ‡2 Thess. i, 7—10.

been grounded on the questions where-, with they deal. The real and effective evidence for the truth of the Christian revelation is thus left uninjured; and while we gladly accept of these friendly explanations for all that they are worth, we cannot view them to be so complete, as to leave no sense of a difficulty yet unfathomable, and no room for the apostolic reflection--"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!"

But we ought now to enter on a separate treatment of those few verses in the passage which might require any explanation. We must forbear the consideration of such prophetic views as are here suggested, and to which full justice could only be rendered in a distinct work.

continue while the elect among the Gen tiles were gathering,* be they few or many: or till all such of them as were ordained to eternal life should believe; or, more generally still, "until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled." This leaves the extent of conversion among the Gentiles undetermined; and also leaves us at liberty to judge, whether, while there is reason to believe that about the time when the Jews are brought in there will be a great enlargement in the general Christianity of the world—whether that enlargement is to precede the Jewish conversion, or the Jewish conversion is to precede the enlargement. We are inclined to believe that, looking to these two events in the order of cause and effect, they will have a great reciprocal influence on each other-or that there Ver. 25. In part.' So great a part as will both be an action and a reaction. to impress a cursory observer with its If it be a likelihood, on the one hand, totality. It was not just this however— that Gentile Christianity, when purified for a certain though very small propor-in its quality and made larger in its tion of the whole nation had been con- amount, shall, both by the exhibition of verted. Paul gladly avails himself of its graces and the efforts of its missionary this, that he might be enabled to charac-zeal, tell with great and sensible effect terise the blindness only as partial; and so be allowed to soften, as his manner is, the representation which he here gives to those Jews whom he is addressing in this epistle of the unbelief of their countrymen. Until,' Until,' or during,' or 'while.' The season of Jewish unbelief will be that of Gentile conversion. We could not from this single verse infer, that, contemporaneous with the restoration of Israel, there was to ensue a remarkable enlargement of general Christianity in the world. This idea, however, might well be sug-lapse of many generations, look gested by the expression-especially when taken in connection with other parts of the chapter and other prophecies of the Bible. Apart from these, the fulness might be understood to mean, not the great number who were to come in, but the whole number who should be converted, whether that number was great or smail. The blindness was to

on the obstinacy of Jewish unbelief-the likelihood is not less, that when a movement is once made on the part of these heretofore resolved aliens to the truth as it is in Jesus, it will tend mightily to open the eyes of all nations, so as to impress millions and millions more in favour of that gospel, whose predictions shall then be so illustriously verified; and to which so impressive a testimony will be given, when its most inveterate, and long its most hopeless enemies, shall, after the

in

mourning and bitterness to Him whom their forefathers had pierced, and, casting away their weapons of rebellion, shall fall down to worship Him.

But our further remarks on particular verses, we must postpone to the next lecture.

Mark, xiii, 27.

LECTURE LXXXVII.

ROMANS Xi, 26-36.

An. so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliveret and seall turn away urgodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for he fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches bota of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to lim, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen."

VER. 26. All Israel.' Some would in- | The conversion intimated here is describe.! .erpret the clause thus-All of Israel who in substantially the same terms in Jere. are to be saved. All of them who are ordained to eternal life. There is as much of force in these interpretations as to make it possible, nay we think even likely, that the meaning here of the word all, is not such an absolute and entire totality, as to include each and every one of the nation at the time of their predicted conversion. Yet something more must be conveyed by the term, than that merely all the elect were to be saved-for, whether many or few, this holds true of them in every age. The 'all' must be held to denote so general, as should amount to a national conversion; and as the 'part' in the verse foregoing, signifies some, though so very few as to make an insensible fraction of believers among the Jewish people-so the 'all' of the verse before us, signifies at least so many as should form a great corporate change from Judaism to Christianity, and so as to leave the unbelievers, if any, but an insensible fraction of the whole.

Out of Zion.' The passage referred to is Isa. lix, 20-where the prophet represents the Deliverer as coming to Zion, while the apostle represents Him as coming from Zion. These two inspired men reveal to us a glimpse of one and the same process, though at different but perhaps nearly, if not altogether contiguous parts of it-the one stating a previous ingress of the Saviour to Jerusalem, the other a consequent egress in the prosecution of His great undertaking. The light of prophecy here, as in many other instances, but permits us to contemplate the event as a general reality, without enabling us to enter on very full or explicit details of it. Its still undoubted futurity, however, is manifest from this-its being spoken of in the language of prediction both in the Old Testament and the New; and a prediction which has not had the semblance of a fulfilment since the days of the apostles.

Ver. 27. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.'

The

│miah, xxxi, 33, 34, and in Hebrews, vin 8-12; x, 16, 17. It consists of the same steps, and is attended with the same blessed results all the world over; and in every instance, whether of Jew or Gentile, who is turned to Christianity. The taking away of their sins in this passage seems a blotting out of the guilt incurred by their transgression of God's laws-as equivalent to what in the other passages is said to be a remembrance (in judgment) of their sins and iniquities no more. turning away of their ungodliness is their sanctification, even as the other was their justification; and is equivalent to what is spoken of elsewhere, as a putting of those laws-from the condernnation of having broken which they were delivered-of putting these laws into their hearts, and writing them in their minds. The cove nant with each individual believer is one and the same, in all ages and among all nations.

Ver. 28. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes.' Their being enemies for the gospel's sake-points to the subservience of Jewish infidelity, as the instrument of diffusing Christianity through the world. We know that historically the rejection of the gospel by the Jews was followed up by its large and rapid furtherance among the Gentiles; nor can we doubt that this passage in the administration of God's providence had its deep-laid reasons, whether we fully comprehend them or not, in the counsels of the Divine policy.-Again their being beloved for the fathers' sake, points to the regard which God had for Abraham, and to the promise which He made this patriarch, even in the form of a reward for his faithfulnessthat He would signalize his posterity, and make them a blessing to the nations of the earth.* This is analogous to other instances in the procedure of the Al

* Gen. xxii, 16; Lev. xxvi, 42; Deut iv, 37.

Inighty's government-as when for the sake of David and other good kings, He continued His favour to Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah.*

cepted constancy of an order that never changed. We are aware of certain transcendental difficulties, which we forbear to grapple with; but assuredly the task of harmonising the character of an administration as being of perfect moral goodness, with the characteristic of its strict and rigorous and irrevocable necessity, is not one of them--even though a necessity settled and ordained in the coun. sels of the Almighty from everlasting And thus particularly might the future and final salvation of the children of Israel be viewed both as the fruit of a primeval decree of election, and as at once the fruit and the reward of the obedience of Abraham. The first does not supersede the second; nay the second is one of the stepping-stones along which the first is carried, and will at length be made good. Nay it will require another great stepping-stone, ere the decree is consummated-a work of grace in the hearts of Abraham's children; their turn

And yet this final salvation of the Jews, though thus holding on the worthiness of their fathers, holds also on election, and so on the sovereignty of God. It is as touching the election, that they are beloved for the fathers' sake. To those who have made a profound study of this arduous topic, there will appear no discrepancy between these two things; and indeed their perfect harmony is often as obvious to the wisdom of a plain Christian, as it is to the man of philosophic discrimination. There is no incompatibility whatever between the order of an administration being fixed, and fixed from all eternity, and yet its being a moral administration. Whether a process be absolute and irreversible is one question. What the special terms of that process are, or what the footsteps in it which follow each other, is another It is the latter questioning to the Lord, that the veil which now which determines the character of the process; and should the former question be resolved in the affirmative, this, so far from changing or giving uncertainty to the character of the process, just rivets and makes it all the more sure.

Give me

a process, all the parts and connections of which are bound together by an adamantine necessity; and this hinders not but that in the laws and tendencies and particular sequences of such a process, we may read both its own character and the character of Him who has ordained it -and all the more distinctly and surely, if the process be indeed unalterable. If in any human government, the deed of virtuous patriotism were generally followed up by the acknowledgment of a public reward-this might serve to characterise it as being on the whole a virtuous government; and surely it would not dilute, but rather stamp and confirm this character the more, if, instead of being thus followed up generally, it were so followed up always. In like manner, if, under the divine government, goodness were always followed up in the long run by enjoyment; and righteousness, though even after a series of discouragements in the way of trial, by happiness and honour; and holiness by heaven; and, in a word, the regeneration of every creature into a state of perfect excellence, by his secure and immortal well-being-no one could question the title of such a government to the highest moral reverence, and a title all the more firmly established, if these several effects followed in the train of their respective causes with the unex

† 1Kings. xi 13 36.

blinds them might be taken away ;* their deep and mournful penitence, and that worked in them by the Spirit of God;† and lastly, their biding not in unbelief, and their ungodliness being turned away.

Ver. 29. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.' That is, repentance on the part of God. What He hath resolved, he shall certainly fulfil. "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" His original purpose, and promise too, respecting the children of Israel, in His own good time, will be accomplished; and the necessary gifts will then be imparted, as well as the necessary calling brought to bear upon them for carrying it into effect. This calling, as being in execution of the decree of election, must, of course, be internal and efficacious-as distinguished from the ordinary and outward calling, such as that wherewith they were plied at the time of the Saviour, and which then proved ineffectual, the things belonging to their peace being hidden from their eyes. At the calling of our text, their eyes shall be opened, and they shai. behold Him whom they have pierced, and say Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.t

Ver. 30, 31. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.' It is obvious, as we have

* 2 Cor. iii, 16. † Zech. xii, 10, 1i. + Matt. xxiii,