0 Jude, ver. 20, 21.
Rom. ix. 1 — 4. / say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my con- science also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my bre- thren, my kinsmen according to the flesh : who are Israelites ; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the cove- nants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises.
IT is generally thought an office of love to conceal from persons any truths, the recital of which will afford them pain : but true love will rather stimulate us to declare such truths as are necessary to be known, though it will incline us to declare them with the greatest tenderness and circumspection. An admi- rable pattern presents itself before us in the text.
The Apostle was about to enter on a subject most offensive to the Jews, but a subject that ought in no wise to be concealed from them, namely, the deter- mination of God to cast off their nation, and to engraft the Gentiles on their stock. But, as it would be thought that he was actuated only by a spirit of revenge, he declares to them, in the most solemn manner, and appeals to God for the truth of it, that so far from wishing their hurt, he was affected with the deepest sorrow on their account ; and that there was nothing he would not do or suffer, if it might but be the means of saving them from the impending ruin.
His enumeration of the privileges which they abused, and his pathetic lamentation over them, may well lead us to consider,
I. The exalted privileges enjoyed by true Israelites —
The Jews, as a nation, were favoured beyond all the nations upon earth —
[God honoured them with an adoption into his family , he regarded them as his children a, and acted towards them as a father13. He vouchsafed to them a symbol of his presence : the ark, and the shechinah, or bright cloud, upon it, were visible tokens of his presence, and were regarded as the " principal glory" of that distinguished people0. He "gave" them also from heaven a revelation of his will: "the" moral "law" he promulged in the form of " a covenant," and wrote with his own finger on two tables of stone d; the judicial law he formed as a code, according to which he himself, and all the magis- trates under him, were to govern them ; and the ceremonial law he instituted for "the service" of his temple, that they might worship him in a becoming manner e. To all these he added " a promise" of his rest, and a continued enjoyment of it, unless they should provoke him by their iniquities to deprive them of itf.]
a Exod. iv. 22, 23. Jer. xxxi. 9, 10.
b Deut. xxxii. 6, 10,13, 14. c 1 Sam.iv. 21, 22. Ps.lxxx. 1.
d The covenant was but one : but it is spoken of in the plural number, either because it was given on two tables, or because it was repeatedly published in different forms.
e Because the sacred oracles were so great a blessing, (Deut. iv. 7,8. Rom.iii. 1,2.) the Apostle speaks of them in three different views.
f Deut. xxx. 15—20.