even for their own ultimate advantage also. This is strongly asserted in the passage before us, where their fall is said to be " the riches of the Gentiles," as their recovery also will be in a far more signal manner and degree.
We presume not to think that we can ever fathom this deep mystery : yet will it be profitable for us to consider it as far as it is revealed : and therefore we shall endeavour, according to the light given us, to shew you, What an interest the Gentiles have in God's dealings with the Jews; particularly in,
I. Their present dispersion —
This was designed of God for the salvation of the Gentiles —
[Doubtless the Jews richly merited this judgment : and therefore, whatever good may be designed for others, no injury is done to them. And God too, if he had pleased, might have vouchsafed mercy to the Gentiles, without rejecting the Jews: his heart was large enough to embrace both, and his power to save them both. But he, in his own infinite wisdom, ordained otherwise. It is not for us to inquire, Why he acted thus ? It is sufficient for us that he has seen fit to do so : and " he giveth not account to us of any of his matters." This advantage from it at least we see, that he has by this means exhibited, in a contrasted view, " his severity to them, and his goodness to usa;" and consequently, has illustrated and glorified at the same time his apparently opposite perfections of justice and mercy. But, however this may be, so he has ordained, and so he has done : and it is an undoubted fact, that,]
The fall of the Jews has led to the salvation of the Gentiles —
[The very circumstance of the Gospel being rejected by the Jews, was favourable to the reception of it among the Gentiles; inasmuch as it demonstrated, that there was no con- federacy among the Jews to deceive them ; that the Apostles, who brought the tidings of salvation to them at the peril of their lives, were men of strict integrity ; and that the Scrip- tures which the Jews so unwittingly fulfilled, must be true. And the conduct of the Jews in relation to the Gospel did actually produce this effect. Their enmity against it at the very first promulgation of it caused them to persecute the
a ver. 22.