Say, now, brethren, whether "these judgments be not in- deed unsearchable, and these ways past finding out ?" — ■ ]
Glorious as that part of our subject is, we leave it, in order to mark the mysteriousness of God's dealings with men,
II. In the way in which he imparts that salvation to them —
And here we would notice his conduct,
1. Towards the world at large —
[This is the point to which St. Paul in our text more especially refers : he has throughout the whole chapter ex- patiated upon the rejection of the Jews, the calling of the Gentiles, and the final restoration of the Jews themselves : and from the view of those mysterious dispensations he is led to make the exclamation before us. Consider then these points. Consider his first separating to himself a people in the person of Abraham, who was an idolater, like all the rest of the world. Yet he took not all of his seed; but only the seed of Isaac, excluding Ishmael from all participation of the promised blessings. Yet neither did he take all of Isaac's seed ; but rejected Esau, the elder, and took Jacob, the younger; and that too by a special order, "whilst they were
yet in their mother's womb, and consequently could have done neither good nor evil." Is there nothing wonderful in this ? Who could have conceived that God should vouchsafe such mercy to any ; or that, vouchsafing it, he should dispense it in so sovereign away? Yet so he did ; and the fact is undeniable. In due time he multiplied the posterity of Jacob, and brought them out of Egypt, and led them through the wilderness, and put them into possession of the promised land, and com- municated to that family exclusively the means of salvation for the space of two thousand years. Here we might ask, If God was not merciful, why did he choose any? and if he was merciful, why for so long a period did he exclude any? But " God's ways are in the great deep." "He giveth not account to us of any of his matters."
At last, for their iniquities he cast off his chosen people ; and made the rejection of them the occasion and the means of calling in the Gentiles. Who shall explain this mystery ? Who shall tell us the reasons why God acted thus ? Who shall tell us why the Gentiles were not called before ; or why they were called then ; and especially why God made the fall of the Jews to be the riches of the Gentiles, and the salvation of the world ? Will any one undertake to account for these things ?
But the deepest part of this mystery yet remains to be noticed. God has still purposes of love towards his rejected people, though he has cast them off almost eighteen hundred years ; and intends to make the more general awakening of the Gentiles the means of bringing back again to him the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and of engrafting them again upon their own stock, from which they have been so long broken off, and on which the Gentiles have been so long grafted in their stead : and then he will make that very resto- ration of the Jews the means of converting the whole world ; so that it shall be as if there were a general resurrection of all the saints to live again upon the earth, all mankind being united under one head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and all con- stituting one fold under one Shepherd. What shall we say to these things ? Was there not reason for Paul, in the prospect of them, to exclaim, "O the depths!" Truly " God's judg- ments are a great deep3 :" " He doeth great things and unsearchable, and marvellous things without number6."]
2. Towards individual believers —
[In reference to these also we must say, that " God's ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts ; but as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are his