accomplished. But God has taken the matter into his own hand; and has said "I will do it; /will lift up my hand to the Gentiles." And, if God will work, who shall let it? It is worthy of remark, that St. Paul himself grounds his as- sured expectation of these events on this very consideration of God's almighty power. Speaking of the Jews being again grafted into their own olive-tree, he says, " They, if they abide not in unbelief, shall be graffed in : for God is able to graff them in again '." In the very chapter before us also, God mentions his all-powerful interposition as an effectual antidote to all the unbelieving fears of his people. The Church, doubting almost the possibility of the promised events, asks, " Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?" Can it be hoped, that they who are in bondage to such powerful adversaries, and have even sold themselves, as it were, by their iniquities, should ever be redeemed? Yes; " thus saith the Lord; Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away ; and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered : for /will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and /will save thy children111." Let us expect it then at the hands of God, knowing that " what he has pro- mised, he is able also to perform." Let difficulties, how great soever they may appear in themselves, be as nothing in our eyes, because that Omnipotence is engaged to surmount them all ; and " nothing can be too hard for the Lord."]
2. God has moreover actually engaged to effect it —
[Survey the promise in our text, confirmed by a most solemn oath, and therefore " confirmed by an oath, that by two im- mutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have the stronger consolation." Compare with it many other passages of Holy Writ, which speak decidedly to the same
effect" Shall all these fail of their accomplishment?
Surely " God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man that he should repent." As to " the times and the seasons, he has reserved them in his own power : but the ultimate accom- plishment of them, if we may so speak, he has put out of his own power ; because " He cannot deny himself ;" and he has him- self assured us, in reference to this very thing, that " his gifts and calling are without repentance0."]
3. The beginnings of it are already visible before our eyes —
[What the prophet says by anticipation, we may almost speak literally: " Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold:
1 Rom. xi. 23. m ver. 24, 25.
n Isai. liv. 1—3. lxi. 4—6. and lxvi. 18—20. ° Rom. xi. 29.