a time were broken off, as fruitless branches ; and the Gentiles were grafted on their stock : and, when the appointed season shall arrive, God will again engraft the Jews upon their own stock, and make both Jews and Gentiles one tree, that shall fill the whole earth. It is by this latter measure that God's designs of love and mercy to the Gentiles also shall be per- fected : for the conversion of the Jews will awaken the attention of the unconverted Gentiles, and be the means of bringing in
the fulness of the Gentiles b
The change that will be wrought upon them will not be merely outward, or consisting in speculative opinions; it will reach to their inmost souls ; it will produce in them a circum- cision of the heart, an utter abhorrence of all sin, and a fervent love to God, as their reconciled God in Christ Jesus : they will " love him," I say, " with all their heart, and with all their soul." True indeed it is that they are very far from this state of mind at present: but so were the murderers of the Lord Jesus on the day of Pentecost ; and yet in one hour were con- verted unto God. So shall it be in the day of God's power ; " a nation shall be born in a day;" " a little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: the Lord will hasten it in his time."]
Such being the prophetic import of the words, let us proceed to notice,
II. The reflections which they naturally suggest —
The present dispersed state of the Jews from which they are in due time to be recovered, is a most instructive subject. We cannot but see,
1. What witnesses they are for God —
[The very person who brought them out of Egypt was in- spired to foretell both their present dispersion, and their future restoration. The event has come to pass; and now for nearly eighteen hundred years have this people been scattered over the face of the whole earth, and are preserved a distinct people in every place. The treatment they should meet with was most circumstantially foretold: the hardships they should undergo c, the oppression they should endure d, the contempt in which they should be held6, the conviction which they themselves, in common with all mankind, should feel, that their sufferings were inflicted by God himself on account of their iniquities f; all, I say, was foretold ; and all is come to pass : and they are
b Rom. xi. 12, 15, 23—29. c Deut. xxviii. 53—57.
d Deut. xxviii. 29. e Deut. xxviii. 37.
f Deut. xxix. 21—28.