The blindness of the Jewish people is most awful —
[Their prophecies respecting the Messiah are most clear*
And the accomplishment of them in the Lord Jesus
Christ is most strongly marked in the New Testament
Yet is there " a veil upon their hearts ;" so that they cannot see either what the prophecies imported, or how they are accomplished11. This, indeed, is " happened to" that nation only " in part." " A remnant" there are, and ever have been, whose eyes have been opened to see the light which shines around them : but " the rest are and have been blinded," according to that prediction respecting them, " God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this dayc."]
This blindness will last " till the fulness of the Gentiles come ind" —
[These words are much misunderstood. Some suppose " the fulness of the Gentiles" to mean the completion of the period allotted for the continuance of the Roman empire ; whilst others think it refers rather to the period when all the Gentiles shall have been brought into the fold of Christ. I con- ceive that neither of these is the true import of the words; but that they speak of the time when the general conversion of the Gentiles shall commence. It cannot mean the completion of that great work; because the fulness of the Jews will precede thate. But when the Gentiles begin on a more extended scale to embrace the Gospel, then shall the veil be taken from the hearts of the Jews also ; and they shall, if not universally, yet with few exceptions, be converted to the faith, and receive the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah, and worship him as their Godf.]
Such is the change which, at the allotted period,
shall take place ; and such,
II. The event that awaits them at the termination of it- Here let me call your attention to,
1. The event itself — [" All Israel shall be saved." Hitherto, even in the best
a Refer to the most striking ; and particularly the 53d chapter of Isaiah.
» 2 Cor. iii. 15. c ver. 8.
d tlcreXOri, shall be fully come. e ver. 1 2.
f That irXripafia here, and Tr\i)pu>6«j(ri in Luke xxi. 24, refer to the commencement, rather than to the close, of a period. See, in the Greek, John vii. 8. Luke ix. 51. Acts ii. 1.