"Oh that the salvation When the Lord bringeth

Jehovah, whose residence was there. of Israel were come out of Zion! back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad." "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power; in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning: thou hast the dew of thy youth.”+

* Ps. xiv. 7; cx. 3.

LECTURE LI.

ROMANS XI. 7-32.

(THIRD DISCOURSE.)

WE called your attention, in last lecture, to the views held out in this chapter of the restoration of the Jews; and to the grounds on which the Apostle teaches us to rest the expectation of that event.

Before proceeding briefly to notice the promised "fulness of the Gentiles," and the connexion of the restoration of Israel with it as a means of its accomplishment, it was my intention to have taken a view of some of the prophecies relative to the event which we have already had before us, and to have compared them with the contents of this chapter. But the field is too extensive and complicated. It involves a number of questions; and on some of them every inch of ground is ground of debate. I relinquish, therefore, the intention for the present. I only observe in general, that almost all the prophets, and some of them largely and with particularity of detail, assure us of the coming eventthe restoration of the people of Israel from their present scattered, degraded, and outcast condition:-and it should seem that this restoration is to comprehend, not only the Jews properly so called, or the descendants of the two tribes that adhered to the House of David after the death of Solomon, and of any of the ten revolted tribes who united with them at the return from the Babylonish captivity, but the remnant of these ten tribes themselves, respecting which

there has been so much conjecture and so much inquiry and search; which I have no doubt are to be found in some part or parts of the world, whether any who have conceived they have discovered them be in the right or not, and which that God who knows His own "hidden ones," however long and however secret their concealment, will in His own way, and at His own time, bring to light, and to the enjoyment of all that He has promised to re-united Israel.—I have formerly expressed my conviction that the prophecies indicate their return to their own land; and I may now add that they seem to place this before the general spiritual conversion of the people to Christianity; such, at least, is the order in several of the largest and most express predictions.—With regard to the calculations of the prophetic seasons, of which some have been proved fallacious by the time having already gone by, and of which others, that fix it at a very near day, appear likely to have the same result, I can say nothing— unless it be, merely in general terms, that I am much inclined to suspect that the estimates of those who place the commencement of the millennial glory of the Church still at a considerable distance, — -even so far off perhaps as the year 2000, are nearer to the truth. I would affirm nothing. The day will declare it; if it comes sooner, His people will hail its earlier arrival; and whensoever it comes, the facts of the fulfilment will bring fully to light and clear conviction the principle of calculation. And with regard to the personal advent of the Son of God, to lead the hosts of Israel against their enemies, and to take his seat, literally, on the throne of David at Jerusalem, I am confident there is no sufficient ground in the Scriptures for such an expectation; although this is by many conceived to be the very event by which the restoration and conversion of Israel is to be, like the redemption from Egypt, suddenly and miraculously effected. I must, however, pass by these and some other topics connected with the present subject, but not brought before us in the Apostle's discussion of it; and shall proceed to a few brief remarks on the connexion between the restoration of the Jews and the fulness of the Gentiles.

There are two things spoken of by the Apostle in the chapter, in reference to the Gentiles;-their "riches," and their "fulness." The former, (verse 12th) refers to the first calling of the Gentiles into the church, in the room and upon the rejection of the Jews, to the participation of "the unsearchable riches of Christ."-The latter (verse 25th) relates to a remoter period;—an era of a vastly more extensive evangelization and conversion of the world to the faith and obedience of the Gospel, than has yet appeared. The fulness is the completion of the riches.

When the Redeemer had finished his work, and was risen from the dead, Jehovah said unto him, "Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession."* The "fulness of the Gentiles" is the bringing in of all the “desolate heritages" included in this Divine grant and promise. The predictions respecting that period have been progressively, and are now most rapidly, receiving their fulfilment. "The kingdom of heaven," said Jesus in his parabolical instructions, (and the parables involved a prophecy) "is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field : which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof:"

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."+ The stone which, in the visions of the Babylonian monarch, was I cut out of the mountain without hands," and which "smote the image, and brake in pieces the

* Ps. ii. 8.

† Matth. xiii. 31-33. The attempt to show, that these parables were not intended to convey to our minds the idea of gradual progress, but that the process of growth in the one case, and the process of fermentation in the other, are to be left entirely out of the account, and nothing regarded but the two extremes,-the little seed and the fullgrown tree,-the insertion of the leaven, and the mass of dough,-is an attempt which, to every man of common sense, can only serve as an indication of the extreme exigency of the cause which requires such criticism for its support.

iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold," "became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth:" intimating, according to the prophetic interpretation, that 'the God of heaven was to set up a kingdom, which should never be destroyed; which should not be left to other people, but should break in pieces and consume the kingdoms signified in the vision, and itself stand for ever.'* "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever."† "All the ends of the world shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." "His name shall endure for ever; his name shall be continued as long as the sun; and men shall be blessed in him: all nations shall call him blessed." "Blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen, and amen."§

The precise extent of the influence of true religion in the glorious and happy period thus predicted, we shall not attempt to decide. It is enough that the figures used to describe it, represent the change on the state of the world to be so great, as to resemble the creation of "a new heavens and a new earth, so that the former should not be remembered, nor come into mind." ||

Let us now attend a little to the reciprocal connexion of the two great events, the fulness of the Gentiles, and the restoration of the Jews, and their influence on each other. This is brought before us in verses 30, 31:-" For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy."

The Apostle had spoken of the calling of the Gentiles, as a kind of consequence of the rejection of the Jews. It was the "casting away of them" that was the "reconciling of

* Dan. ii. 35, 44.

† Rev. xi. 15.

Ps. xxii. 27.

2 Ps. lxxii. 19.

Isa. lxv. 17.