1. Exclusion from the pale of any visible church does not of itself imply that men are without the reach of divine mercy, vs. 25, 26.
2. As the world has hitherto existed, only a small portion of the nomi- nal members of the church, or of the professors of the true religion, has been the real people of God, vs. 27, 28, 29.
3. Error is often a greater obstacle to the salvation of men than care- lessness or vice. Christ said that publicans and harlots would enter the kingdom of God before the Pharisees. In like manner the thought- less and sensual Gentiles were more susceptible of impression from the gospel, and were more frequently converted to Christ, than the Jews, who were wedded to erroneous views of the plan of salvation, vs. 30, 31.
4. Agreeably to the declarations of the previous portion of this chapter, and the uniform tenor of Scripture, the ground of the distinction between the saved and the lost is to be found, not in men, but in God. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. But the ground of the condemna- tion of men is always in themselves. That God gave his saving grace to more Gentiles than Jews, in the early ages of the church, must be referred to his sovereign pleasure ; but that the Jews were cut off and