God had, many ages before, decreed the reception of the Gen- tiles into his Church, without subjecting them to the rite of circumcision : and if that Apostle had imposed a sense upon the passage foreign to its real and received meaning, the Jews would doubtless have objected to his interpretation of itb. Here then we have one sense at least, (and that the most doubtful one,) of this important passage, fixed by undisputed and infallible authority. That in this sense it was accomplished, is too plain to stand in need either of proof or illustration : we ourselves, as of Gentile extraction, are living monuments of its truth.]
3. The future restoration of the Jews, and their union with the Gentiles in one universal Church —
[Though myriads of Gentiles have been converted to Christianity, we are far enough from having seen " all the heathen" subjected to the yoke of Christ; yet it is of all the remnant of the unconverted heathen that the prophet speaks. Nor have the Jews been so brought back to their own land as to be driven from it no more : yet it is to such a restoration of them that the prophet refers0. Both of these events will take place together, or in the nearest connexion with each other: " the fall of the Jews has been the riches of the Gentiles," and the fulness of the Gentiles will be as renewed life to the Jewsd: then will both be united under one Head, the Lord Jesus Christ ; and he, as the true David, will reign over them for evere. All his enemies then, whether Jewish or heathen, will be put under his feet ; and all the kingdoms of the world become his undisputed possession.]
Nor is this a speculative subject merely, but one replete with comfort : this will appear by considering, II. The encouragements to be derived from it —
Every prophecy admits of practical improvement ; and this especially. It affords us rich encouragement, 1. In relation to individuals —
[The state of multitudes is altogether as desperate as was that of the Jews in Babylon. What hope is there of the proud infidel — the abandoned sensualist — the cruel persecutor — the hardened backslider f? — We should be ready to say concerning them, " There is no hope :" but there is nothing impossible with God ; and he who restored the Jews from Babylon, and converted so many Gentiles by the instrumentality of a few
t> Acts xv. 13 — 17. c ver. 14, 15.
a Rom. xi. 12, 15, 31. e Jer. xxx. 9. Zech. xiv. 9.
f Shew in each of these states how desperate their condition is.