214 ROMANS 9 : 1—5.

extend the blessings of the Messiah's reign to the Gentiles, 9 : 1 — 24 ; and, in the second, that he has already declared that such was his pur- pose, vs. 25 — 29. Agreeably to these prophetic declarations, the apos- tle announces that the Jews were cast off and the Gentiles called ; the former having refused submission to the righteousness of faith, and the latter having been obedient, vs. 30 — 33. In the tenth chapter Paul shows the necessity of this rejection of the ancient people of God, and vindicates the propriety of extending the invitation of the gospel to the heathen in accordance with the predictions of the prophets. In the eleventh he teaches that this rejection of the Jews was neither total nor final. It was not total, inasmuch as many Jews of that generation be- lieved ; and it was not final, as the period approached when the great body of that nation should acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, and be reingrafted into their own olive tree.