that they were broken off: and it is by faith that we stand. O then, be not high-minded, but fearm." Fear " lest there be in you also an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." Do not imagine that a mere outward profession of Christianity is of any value : no, it is " a seeing of Him who is invisible :" a " walking by faith, and not by sight:" it is the exercise of that " faith which is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen ;" in a word, it is " a life of faith upon the Son of God, who has loved you, and given himself for you." This, beloved, is the life to which you are called by the Gospel : and it is by such a life that you are to " provoke the Jews to emulation :" and, if you live not in this way, or, having begun to live thus, turn away from it, it would be better for you never to have heard the Gospel ; yea, it were better that you had been born Jews, or heathens, and infinitely " better that you had never been born" at all.]
3. How earnestly should we labour for the con- version of the Jews .
[God has decreed that they shall be converted : and we have reason to believe that the period fixed for it in the Divine counsels is not far distant. It is a fact, that multitudes in the heathen world are expecting a change in their religion : the Mahometans and Hindoos throughout our eastern empire are strongly impressed with this idea : and the exertions making in every possible way for the conversion of the heathen world, warrant us to hope, that " their fulness" will speedily commence. At all events, " we are debtors to the Jews," and should seek to discharge our debt n. Though they are at this time " enemies for our sakes, they are still beloved for their fathers' sakes0:" and if, notwithstanding their present enmity against Christ, they are beloved of God for their fathers' sakes, should they not be beloved of us ? Think how indebted we are to their fathers, to those who, at the peril of their lives, brought the glad tidings of salvation home to us : and should we not labour to recom- pense all this in acts of love to their descendants ? It is a favourite notion with many, that to attempt the conversion of the Jews is a hopeless task. But what ground is there for such a desponding thought as this ? Are they farther off from God than the Gentiles were, when the Gospel was first pub- lished to them? or is it a harder thing for God to convert them than to convert us ? God expressly tells us, that it is a work of less difficulty : " If thou wert cut out of the olive- tree, which is wild by nature, and were graffed, contrary to nature, into a good olive-tree, how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive-
111 ver. 20. » Rom. xv. 27. ° ver. 28.