which is not administered by them ? What hope have we in death, which is not founded upon information derived from them ? What glory can we look for in another world, but that which has been unveiled to us by them ? Take from us the instruction which we have received from them, and we shall be reduced at once to all the darkness and misery in which our early ancestors were involved, and in which the whole heathen world are at this very moment immersed. Ad- mirable is the illustration which the Apostle gives us of this truth. Conceive a " branch boasting against the root ;" and saying, ' I am more exalted than thou, and more estimable in every respect. Behold my foliage, and my fruit : what hast thou of worth or beauty, in comparison of me ? ' How would this arrogance be silenced in a moment, by the answer which the root would of course return ! ' You boast of your beauty and your fruitfulness. Whence did you derive them, but from me ? What would you ever have possessed, if it had not been communicated to you by me ? Instead of boasting therefore over me, acknowledge your obligations to me, and confess that all which you either are or have, you have derived from me.' Thus, in relation to all that we possess or hope for as the people of the Lord, we stand indebted to the Jews ; whilst they, on the contrary, owe nothing to us ; but rather have rea- son to execrate us, for withholding from them the light we have enjoyed, and putting every obstacle in their way, to per- petuate their ruin. What, then, should be our feelings towards them ? what, but the tenderest compassion for their state, and the most earnest desire to restore them to God's favour ?]
To our pity for them we should add, II. Watchfulness over ourselves —
What use is commonly made of their rejection, may be seen in the self-vindicating reply which is here anticipated —
Thou wilt say then, " The branches were broken off that I might be graffed in." The Apostle attempts not to deny this awful and mysterious truth : yea, he accedes to it ; saying, " Well," it is so. But, granting this, is it any reason for boasting against them ? Is it not rather a reason for pity- ing their undone condition ? Were we to see a man deprived of his paternal inheritance, and perishing with hunger ; and were we informed, that he had been disinherited, merely that Tve, who had no worthiness in ourselves, and no relation to his father, might possess his estates ; should we feel disposed to glory over him and insult him ? Should we not rather wish to administer to him such relief as he stood in need of, if we could do it without injury to ourselves? Would not a want
1896.3 NEGLECT OF THE JEWS REPROVED. 4v3o
of such consideration for him be justly accounted the greatest cruelty ?]
But hear the 'phenomenon accounted for — [True it is that God has broken them off, and graffed us in ; and that he has "broken them off, that he might graff us in." But we are mistaken if we think that God has in this matter acted altogether as a sovereign. In the first choice of Abra- ham and his posterity, he did exercise his sovereignty : but, in rejecting them, he acts upon the grounds of strict justice. And this is a distinction which we are too apt to overlook. In the bestowment of his favours, God finds his motives solely in his own bosom ; but in the execution of his judgments, he finds them solely in the conduct of those whom he resolves to punish. They have brought upon themselves his displeasure by their in- veterate unbelief. Though they saw all God's wonders in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, they were always full of unbelief, and ready to trust in gods of their own creation, rather than in him. Nay, more : when they had seen all the evidences of Christ's Messiahship, instead of believing in him, they cried, " Away with him ! crucify him ! crucify him ! " For these iniquities God cast them off: and in their rejection it becomes us to see and acknowledge the righteousness of his ways. Had it pleased God so to order it, he could have united us with them on the same stock, which would have borne both as easily as one : but God saw fit to make the Jews monu- ments of his righteous indignation against sin : and, when we ourselves are so prone to sin, it ill becomes us to triumph over them. Bear in mind this proceeding,]